The Boy With Black Fur
by Mintobrandybuck
Summary: Sequel 1 of 2 to The Point of No Return. Taking place a year after PoNR, Shadow finds himself in love with an Umbreon. But, things take a turn for the worst when everyone's favorite evil organization, Beyond, intereferes. Please R&R!
1. Our story begins

_Why is it when someone dies,_

_It always makes us wish to cry?_

_Shouldn't we be glad they can fly,_

_And soar along the cloudless skies?_

_Is it because they're forever gone,_

_And it makes you feel all alone_

_When really it's a brand new dawn…_

_Why do I cry?_

The lone figure continued humming the sad tune he remembered hearing his mother sing when he was little. This place always made him sad, but he visited it often. He knew the tears he shed here meant the world to her. Looking out across the water sparkling in the late day sun made him remember happier times…

"_Whoa! How did you find this place? It's beautiful!"_

"_I got lucky, I guess."_

"_Wow…it's magnificent…"_

"_Yeah, but it pales in comparison to you."_

"_Stop! You're making me blush!"_

"_Hehe…let's never forget this moment, okay?"_

"_Yeah!"_

"_And let's always be together, okay? Together forever?"_

"_Yeah…together forever!"_

Together forever…yeah, that had been what their promise was. They never deviated from it, not even once.

The figure lay down on the ground, lost in thought. Everything came so simply when he was young. But it wouldn't last.

That day…would always hold a place of indecision in his memory. Was it a good day, or was it a bad one? Honestly, it was both, which is why it was so confusing. Should it be cherished, of thrown away?

To this day, he didn't know what to make of it. He yawned, his yellow rings glowing faintly in the light of the late day. He didn't care, really. He loved his memories, each and every one of them. Especially the ones with her. They were all he had left, after all.

Rolling onto his back to watch the orange sky grow dark, Shadow began to hum again.

----------

_I still remember the day we met,_

_And back then I could've never bet_

_That things would have gotten the way they get._

_But frankly, I'm glad they did._

I woke up at the crack of dawn, like always. Careful not to disturb my sleeping sister, I crept out of bed and into the kitchen. Isabel, surprisingly, was already there. She looked like she hadn't had any sleep at all, but that wasn't surprising. After all, it was the anniversary of the day Cici and Blaze left. It had been a whole year. Isabel had been sad and teary-eyed for the longest time after they disappeared. Much like she was now.

"Oh…hello, Shadow." She sniffed, taking a sip of her coffee. Isabel had matured a lot since that day. She still looked the same physically, of course. She had grown a bit, perhaps, but she still had the same tan skin and long black hair tied back with a ribbon so it wouldn't get in her warm, kind face. No, it was deeper than that, on an emotional level. She was still as fun and caring as ever, but now you could see the pain in her face, weighing down on her heart every day.

I hated my mother for it.

She just up and leaves one day for no reason, leaving the ones she loves behind, including her own children! I could understand why Isabel missed then, but I could care less if they ever returned.

"Ah, I see you're both up." Isabel observed, taking another sip of her coffee. I turned around. I hadn't noticed Rose standing in the doorway, but now I recognized the sweet scent that followed her. She had grown a lot in the past year. She now stood roughly 3 feet tall, with soft, light brown fur covering her body except for her green ears, paws, and leaf-shaped tail. As a Leafeon, the air around her was cleaner and sweeter-smelling, and she often had a flower with which she shares her namesake tucked behind one ear. Her kind brown eyes reflected her personality and maturity. She was a lot like Isabel, in a way.

But that's not to say that I haven't changed, though. I had grown about 2 feet, and was only a couple inches shorter than my sister. I took pride in my long ears and tail, and Isabel often said that my rings were quite handsome (even though on a full moon they glow so brightly that sleep is scarce). My fur had stayed black in my evolution, as expected. All accounted for, I'd say I was quite an appealing Umbreon. If only Cici could see us now.

She'd wish she would've never left.

Isabel sat up. "Are you two ready to go?" Go? Go where? Rose nodded, heading to the door while Isabel got her coat. She must've noticed my look, because she smiled. "We're going to Dad's house, remember?"

Oh, yeah.

I smiled and headed out the door, where there was already a taxi waiting for us outside. We piled in, and a few minutes later, we were off.

----------

An hour later we arrived at Sam's house in the city, and I couldn't be any happier to get out of that car. Isabel told me that I inherited Cici's anxiety. I had trouble sitting still for longer then 10 minutes.

So, you can imagine my relief when we pulled into the driveway.

Sam had intentions of moving, but was unable to when Blaze left. Without a seeing-eye dog, he was forced to quit his job. He was still doing well, but several times he had been to the brink of needing to sell his house and come live with us. He persevered, though.

"Isabel! Little ones!" I shouted as we came up to the front door. Isabel hugged her father.

"Hi, Dad." she said. Sam led us inside, to the kitchen. Everything looked vaguely familiar. I remembered only a little about living here; Isabel and Cici moved away when Rose and I were still young and we hadn't visited the city since then. Sam and Isabel began chatting, catching up, but I quickly lost interest. I stood up and began to look around. Rose shot me a look.

"I'm just looking around." I said innocently. She rolled her eyes, but looked back up at Sam, who was scratching her head. I shrugged and wandered out a door leading out of the kitchen. Something felt oddly familiar about this room.

Oh, that's right. This was our old room. The one Lucia got taken from. I smiled sadly, looking around the squarish room. It looked a lot bigger back then. I noticed the window the Houndours had crashed through. It looks like not a lot of time had been spent fixing it up. There was a board roughly nailed over it. Only a small hole was still visible. I took one last look around and turned to leave.

A loud _THUMP_ outside made me turn back around. Something moved outside the window. Curious, I looked outside. There was someone there. The figure noticed me and ran off. Something was up.

I had to find out. I squeezed through the hole in the window, landing hard on the ground outside. I got up just to see the figure ducking behind a tree. I had no idea that there was still a forest in the city. Well, we _were_ on the outskirts, so I guess that makes sense. I followed the figure through the trees, ducking around plants until we reached a large clearing.

A lake? When did that get there? I scanned the lake, trying to find the figure. Hmm…there! Down by the shore, I saw the figure. I stalked up behind him. I was about to surprise him, when I saw what he was doing. The figure was…crying?

He…no, wait. I noticed it was a girl. She was staring down into the water, her black shoulders shaking gently. She was a delicate figure, really, her long ears drooping slightly. She had jet black fur, and it didn't take me long to realize that she was an Umbreon, too. I lost all desire to interrogate her. I just sat there quietly, watching her. She sat there sobbing for a few moments, and when she finally stopped she looked up and saw me. There were tears in her eyes. She didn't run, though. She just looked…well, guilty, actually. I noticed something by her feet. She pushed it towards me.

It took me a moment to identify it, but I realized it was the picture that Sam kept in the side room. Why did the Umbreon have it? She must've taken it, but why?

I opened my mouth to say something, but she shook her head. "Sorry…" I thought I heard her mumble before she turned and ran off. I didn't chase after her. I just sat there, paralyzed. What just happened? The sound of Isabel calling my name dragged me back to my senses. I turned around, and saw Isabel standing on the back porch. I looked back one last time at where the Umbreon disappeared to, then headed back to Sam's house.


	2. Penumbra

**A/N: Holy lack of updates, Batman, I've fallen behind!**

**But, in all seriousness, I'm really, really, REEEEAALLY sorry about the delay. First it was the computer acting up, then I was too busy, then it was the computer again…phew! Well, you have my deepest, most profound apologies.**

**I'mma try to post two chapters tonight to make up for it. Let's see how that goes :)**

_I remember when I learned your name._

_That's what started this crazy game,_

_But I guess I'm only to blame._

_There' nothing else I can do…_

"You look preoccupied." Rose observed. I looked away from the window and shrugged at her. We had spent the night at Sam's house. All the following day I had kept an eye out for the Umbreon, but she was nowhere to be found. "Isabel wants to go soon. You ready?"

I nodded. Rose turned and headed back to Isabel in the living room, but I turned back to the window. I earnestly wished I could see that girl again, but I didn't know why. I was curious, I suppose. Why was she here, and why was she stealing the photo? Just a few of the questions I wanted to ask her. A horn honked outside. Isabel was waiting in the taxi.

I turned and headed out the door, into the cool autumn day. I was about to step into the back of the yellow vehicle when I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye.

Something black.

I turned in time to see it duck behind the house. It was Umbreon, it had to be! I ran around the side of the house, scanning the backyard.

"Shadow? Shadow!" I heard Isabel call, but I ignored her. I ran down to the lake, my eyes eagerly scanning for any signs of the dark Pokemon. I spotted her down by the lakeshore again and approached her slowly. She was slumped on the ground near the water, facing away from me.

"Hello?" I asked, inching closer. She didn't respond. I moved closer again. I was standing above her now. My heart raced and I felt my face flush as I looked down on her dark form. Her breathing was rough and shallow, and upon closer inspection, I realized she was hurt.

I was going to access the damage when I heard, "Shadow, come on!" It was Isabel, approaching quickly and looking flustered. I could see her face soften and her eyes widen when she noticed the Umbreon, however. She indicated the barely conscious Pokemon, as if to ask, 'Is this what you saw?'. I nodded, looking back down on the injured Umbreon, who Isabel carefully scooped up and carried back to the house, muttering softly to the Pokemon. I followed her, praying that she would be okay.

----------

As it turns out, Umbreon's only injury was a single long cut on her stomach. It wasn't deep but was just bad enough to completely bamboozle Isabel about its origin and require some stitches and a few days of rest. I was relieved that Isabel decided to stay at Sam's house while Umbreon recovered. After all, I still wanted to talk to her and make sure she was okay. She was still unconscious for several hours after Isabel put in the stitches, but I waited in the room for her to come around. I was lying beside her bed, trying hard not to stare at the patch of shaved-away fur that was dangerously close to…well, I'm sure you can guess--when she woke up.

"Oooh…" she groaned, shifting slightly in my mother's old bed, relinquishing me of looking at that tempting patch of no fur. She lifted her head up and spotted me, but her gaze was just as soon drawn to the bowls of food and water that Isabel had left out for her. Her eyes darted between me and the food, looking unsure. I smiled and pushed the bowls closer to her. She stared at it with uncertainty for a moment, but must have decided it was okay because she ate the food ravenously. When she finished, she gave a sigh of satisfaction and rested back down on the bed. She stared at me for a moment before she spoke.

"Why did you help me?" Her voice was soft and kind, but stern. It practically made my heart melt just listening to her talk.

"Well, you were in trouble. Why?" Umbreon looked confused.

"But…the picture! I-I tried to steal it…" Now it was my turn to be confused.

"So? You were hurt. I couldn't just leave you. Besides, everyone deserves a second chance." I smiled at her, but she turned away. Afraid that I had somehow upset her, I changed the subject. "I-I'm Shadow. What's your name?"

"Penumbra." A heavenly name, suitable for an angel. But it doesn't exactly roll of the tongue. I was about to speak up about it, but she turned around and interrupted. "You can call me Penny if it's easier." I nodded.

This was the first _really_ good look of her. She looked like any normal Umbreon, except she was a good bit thinner. She was maybe and inch of two shorter than me, and her coat was a shade lighter. Her golden eyes somehow managed to be serious and sincere at the same time. Her face was one of youth and energy, but you could not deny the weariness that shone through, despite the fact that she couldn't have been too much older than me. Penny yawned. I couldn't help but grin.

"Alright, I'll get going so you can get some sleep." Penny nodded, resting her head back down on the bed. I backed out the doorway, closing it behind me.

"How's your little patient?"

"Wah!" Rose had surprised me. I whipped around, but immediately hid my face when I realized my face was flushed and I was sweating profusely Rose giggled.

"Hee hee…there's no need to hide. I think it's cute." She had a huge grin plastered in her face. I snorted, marching past her. I don't know why I felt so embarrassed.

"Oh, c'mon, Shadow!" my sister called. "I didn't mean it quite like that!" I ignored her and continued out the front door. I stopped on the porch, looking up at the dark sky. I don't know what came over me. I sighed, now looking down at the ground.

Worst of all, none of my questions had been answered yet.

----------

All this hospitality confused Penny.

She had stolen from this house in the past, and had bee caught last time. And furthermore, she was what the people in this city call and urchin- a previously-owned, now trainerless street rat. And yet, here these people were, treating her like a member of their own family!

Penny shifted uncomfortably on the bed. Not that the bed was uncomfortable. Quite the opposite, in fact. It was the best bed she had slept on since, well, her trainer had been taken away. Penny wasn't used to sleeping on such a soft bed.

And the food! Oh, the food…it was like being in heaven! And chocolate! Oh, god, chocolate! Penny had forgotten the taste of the sweet substance. She was used to eating secondhand, leftover food. There was a gang of urchins in the city that was led by a Linoone that would trade food and necessities to other street rats in exchange for shiny or otherwise valuable objects. That's why Penny was stealing the photo. That gold frame would've gotten food for nearly a month! But…now she was here being pampered, and it perplexed her to no end.

That other Umbreon seemed nice enough. What was his name…Shadow? Yeah, Shadow. He was pretty nice, but to Penny it almost seemed like he was constantly coming on to her every time they were in the same room. He had been the one who caught her stealing the picture, yet he liked her and treated her like a friend! There's no way he was from around here; he was too soft. The city would eat him up in a day.

Stranger still, despite him being a dark Pokemon, it seemed as if he hadn't been caught under the influence of the Dark Gang. It was only a matter of time.

_One thing is clear,_ Penny though, resting her head on the bed. _I can't stay here any longer._


	3. Fated

_I don't know why I tried,_

_But when I saw why you cried,_

_I promised I'd stay 'til the day I died._

_That promise was…together forever…_

Penny healed rather quickly, which was good. I got to know her better, too. She had been owned until about half a year ago when her trainer was suddenly taken away. But, despite my questioning, I didn't really make any progress on a personal level, and I was still making no headway in finding out how she got that nasty cut.

I'm sure if I was just imagining this, but Penny seemed…antsy. Anxious. She kept looking around, almost as if for a way out. But, that didn't make sense, did it? I mean, we were treating her well. Besides, if we hadn't have helped her, who knows what might have happened? She could very well have died! I resolved to ask her the next day.

I never got the chance.

That very night, I heard the faintest sound outside my doorway. Getting up slowly, I crept over to the door and pushed it open with my nose. Someone was moving around outside. I opened the door just enough to slip through and followed the sound of the footsteps. Quietly I moved, tracing the source of the noise. Imagine my surprise when I found Penny in the side room, climbing through the same hole she had climbed through just a few days ago.

"Penny?" I asked slowly. He ears perked up, then her head, which she turned around to face me.

"...aw, jeez." she muttered, dropping down from the window. "What are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you the same." I replied stubbornly. "You should be sleeping. You still have to heal some more, and if Isabel-"

"Shush." Penny whispered, interrupting me. "I'm trying to be silent here, and you're making it awfully hard."

"But, why are you climbing through the window?"

Penny sighed. "I can't stay. I was going to leave without telling anyone, but you can see how well _that_ turned out." She glared at me.

"Can't stay? What do you mean you can't stay?" I asked her. What was up with her? Why was she deliberately giving up all this? Besides, she still hadn't fully recovered!

"Look." Penny said, giving in. "As long as I'm here, no one, especially you, is safe. All I would do here is cause harm." She turned and began to pull herself up through the hole again.

"Penny!"

"Shush!" Penny glared at me again.

"Penny!" I said again, this time in a loud whisper. "Stop this! What are you thinking?" It was too late. She slipped through the hole in the window, disappearing outside. I sighed and climbed out through the hole myself. I looked around for a moment, then ran up to the Umbreon.

"What?" She hissed, glaring at me for the third time. Man, she must've spent a lot of time practicing that look.

"I'm coming with you."

Penny shook her head. "Of course you're not! Didn't you just hear a word I said?"

I stopped in front of her. "Penny, it's dangerous out there, and you're not fully healed yet."

"I'll live." She growled, brushing past me.

"Penny, I'm coming with, whether you like it or not." Penny stopped and turned back to me.

"Nothing's going to change your mind, huh?" I shook my head resolutely. Penny groaned. "Fine. You can come with, but I'm warning you. It's more dangerous out there than you would imagine." I nodded, satisfied.

----------

It was just her luck.

As the pair walked through the forest growing behind the old man's house, Penny silently fumed. She was bad off enough as it was without _him_ coming with her. All she wanted to do was get away from that damn Gang, but having him around would be like a big spotlight that said, 'Hey, come look at us! We're ripe for the frickin' picking!'

Penny groaned. She didn't even know where she was planning on going, just as long as it was far away from here. And, preferably, Shadow.

_I'll have to ditch him somehow,_ Penny thought, her mind already racing for a plan.

----------

The two of us walked until it was too dark to see more then 10 feet in front of us. About halfway through I began to feel guilty about leaving like that, but I felt I had a duty to help Penny. Penny didn't seem happy at all, though. She was silent the entire day and always kept a distance of at least 5 feet in between the two of them.

"Penny, we should find some shelter for the night." I suggested. She didn't answer, but I hadn't expected her to. I began to scan our surroundings as far as I could see. The forest really didn't have a whole lot of trees, and after a couple miles it opened up to a big bunch of hills and a more mountainous region. I spotted something. A cave. "Aha!"

The cave was fairly large; roughly 15x10 feet at the entrance, and another good 10 feet deep. We stepped inside with almost unbelievable timing, because it had just begun to rain. Penny immediately rolled up in a far corner.

"Goodnight." I said to Penny. She grunted, turning over to face the wall away from me. Slowly, I sat down by the opposite wall, trying to get comfortable. It was really cold out, and the rain didn't help at all. I noticed Penny shiver in the opposite end of the cave.

"Say, Penny, why don't you come over here so we can keep each other warm?" I said, but quickly regretted it. I clamped my mouth shut and expected to get a glare followed by a swift ejection from the cave, but Penny remained silent. My mouth went into babble-apologetically mode. "P-p-p-penny, I-I-I'm sorry, I didn't actually mean, y'know-"

"Shadow?" she asked softly.

"Y-yes, Penny?"

"Shut up."

"Yes, Penny…"

----------

I hate waking up in the morning to bad breath, especially when it's not my own. And it's usually Rose's.

But when I was woken abruptly and it wasn't light out and Rose obviously wasn't here, it made me panic a little. At least until I saw the source of the bad breath.

Then I panicked a lot.

It was an Ursaring, glaring at me right in the eye. This must've been his cave. And guess who was trespassing? The gigantic bear stood up slowly, giving me the opportunity I was looking for. I leapt up.

"Penny, quick, run!" I shouted, darting around Ursaring's legs. It roared, swiping its wicked claws at me, narrowly missing me.

"Mmf...what's goin'…what's…what the _hell?!_" Penny shot up quickly and ran, but, unfortunately, the wrong way. She found herself backed up against the back wall of the cave. Talk about stuck between a rock and a hard place. And now she needed me.

"Hey, rock-for-brains!" I shouted, biting the Ursaring's ankle, which successfully drew his attention away from Penny. The bear swept it paw down, just grazing my cheek with a claw. I jumped back in surprise, but quickly bit at its other leg. It snarled in fury and didn't notice Penny deftly slip away. It attacked one last time, but this time it counted. The monster's claws raked my stomach, leaving long scarlet cuts and blowing clear outside the cave. But, with the intruders outside, the Ursaring seemed satisfied and curled up inside his home.

I had never felt such pain in my life. If you've never suffered a horrible injury, there's no possible way you could ever comprehend the feeling. Laying on my back, I saw Penny's face enter my view. She tutted.

"That's a shame." she muttered, turning and walking off. I weakly tried to call her name, but I didn't have the strength. All my energy was draining out of me. Or was that just my blood? I couldn't dwell on it any longer because I lost consciousness.

----------

What a stroke of luck!

Penny was grinning happily. She felt like she could skip her way through these damned hills. She was a safe distance away from the city, and she was rid of her tagalong!

Of course, she did feel sort of bad leaving Shadow to die back there, but she didn't have a choice. She had to do this alone, and she had no way of getting rid of him. She shook her head. Was that guilt she was feeling?

"Well, well, well…someone's a loooong way from home…" Someone behind Penny chuckled. Penny whirled around, but she already knew who it was.

Houndoom.

The dark hound grinned, revealing a row of pointed, silver fangs. "What are ye doing so far from your fellow members, poppet?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Penny huffed, trying to brush past Houndoom, but he cut her off again.

"Word is you've been hanging out with that Shadow boy." Houndoom growled, suddenly all about business. "You know I have problems with that boy. You know the story?"

Penny sighed. "His mother foiled your kidnapping attempt, but you still managed to kill the one. Yes, I've heard it a thousand times."

"The insolent wench stopped us from bringing the hybrids to our master. And her little orange mate is the one-"

"…The one who killed your previous boss. I _know_." Penny sighed again. They had been over this a hundred times, at least. "What do you want from me, Houndoom? I already said I'm done with the Gang."

Houndoom chuckled, fire burning in his eyes. "Oh, no, you don't understand. No one quits the Gang. So, you're going to do as our masters tell us, or you're going to pay."

"I have no master." Penny growled. Houndoom chuckled again, making her skin crawl.

"Sure you don't. But hey, let's pretend that's true for a moment." Houndoom leaned in closer, his nose almost touching hers. "What're ye going to do about it?"

"Get away from me!" Penny shouted, ramming her head into Houndoom's chest, knocking the wind out of him. He took a couple steps back, wheezing, then glared at Penny with a new hatred in his eyes.

"Ohohoho, now you've done it!" He sent a blast of fire at Penny, making her duck and roll out of the way, barely avoiding the attack. Houndoom was right on her though, scratching her arm with his sharp claws. Penny screamed.

"Ah, now there's a sound I like to hear! Just like old times, eh, Penny?" Houndoom grinned and slashed at her again. She cried as his claws grazed her other front leg. Houndoom cackled wildly and raised his paw to strike again, but stopped suddenly. He had the strangest look on his face.

"Leave her alone."

Penny traced Houndoom's gaze to the voice behind her. There, standing in the road, was a strange red and black Pokemon. No, wait. It wasn't red, the color was just- Wait, could it really be?

----------

I stood there, breathing heavily and with my whole chest burning, but I couldn't let this monster harm Penny.

"Leave her alone." I said, glaring right at the Houndoom. He lowered his paw and just stared at me for a moment. He grinned; I could see the morning sun glinting of his lethal-looking teeth.

"Well, well, well…lookie what we got here…" Houndoom walked right past Penny and began to circle around me. "You're Shadow, aren't you?"

"Don't answer him." Penny looked serious.

"Aw, shut up, you!" Houndoom shouted, swinging out his paw and cuffing Penny in the face, leaving three parallel scratches on her cheek.

"Hey!" I shouted. I could feel the rage welling up inside me. It was like a dark cloud was just waking from a dormant stage in my heart. "I said, 'leave her alone.'".

"Make me." The gauntlet was thrown, so to speak. I wanted to wipe that smug little grin of the bastard's face. I could feel the anger building; it was almost as if I could reach down and grab just a bit of that dark cloud…

Before I knew what was happening, Houndoom was gone. He had disappeared screaming over the side of the mountain pass. Before I could ponder over what happened, though, the entire world shook, then turned on its side. I toppled over, banging my head on the hard ground.

"Shadow!" Penny ran over to me, helping me stand up again. "Shadow, you saved me…again. Why…? I mean, I abandoned you…"

I shook my head, which made the whole world spin again. I realized I had a massive headache. "Penny, I'm not going to let you get rid of me that easily." I sat up, with her helping to support me. "It's obvious the Dark Gang has it in for you. I want to help you. I want to keep you safe. I'll be here with you...forever, if I have to."

"Shadow…" Penny had tears welling in her eyes. "Shadow, I don't understand…why-"

"I have questions, too, but there will be plenty of time for those later. First, let's find somewhere where we can lie down." Penny nodded, suddenly very serious again.

"Alright." She nodded, leading the way slowly.

It was dark again by the time we found another suitable cave. And, of course, it was already raining.

I shook the water out of my fur and took my place on the side of the cave opposite of Penny's.

"Shadow, why-"

"Penny," I sighed, exasperated, "We can talk in the morning. Right now, I'm exhausted." There was no response, so I assumed she had gone back to being her surely self, which suited me just fine. I closed my eyes and tried to get comfortable, but the weather seemed to suck all the warmth out of the air.

I was surprised a few minutes later when I felt something nudging its way through my front legs. I looked down and was even more surprised awake to find it was Penny. She had crawled in between my front legs and was now laying in front of me with her back into my stomach.

"Penny, what…?"

She looked up at my face. "It's cold over there." She said simply, and closed her eyes. I opened my mouth to protest, but decided against it.

Why ruin the moment?

**A/N: D'awww….**

**Anyways, I did it! Two chapters! I hope you enjoyed them, I know I did. And don't worry, there's plenty more to come!**


	4. Bonding

_You were like an angel from above,_

_And for once I could really tell._

_If this is what it's like to fall in love,_

_Then I'm really glad I fell._

When I woke up the next morning Penny was still curled up against me with my arm draped over her. I smiled. I let her sleep for the moment and enjoyed the softness of her silky fur and the warmth of her body. I gave a sigh of contentment. Penny yawned, looking up at me dreamily.

"Good morning, sleepyhead." I said with a grin. She flashed a brief smile, but quickly rolled over so she could get up. She stretched, then turned back to me.

"Shadow, last night…please don't get the wrong idea." She said defensively, turning her head. "I was cold. That's all." I nodded, feeling a little downtrodden. I could've sworn she had changed, but, I guess it was just a pipe dream. Maybe she'd never actually like me. Oh, well.

I nodded again. "Alright. We have nothing to discuss then." I got up, heading for the entryway of the cave. "Let's go." Penny opened her mouth as if to protest, but decided against it. I hoped that didn't sound too mean.

----------

Ten minutes later we were walking through the mountainous path again. There was an awkward silence around the two of us. Several times I tried to break the ice, but I couldn't bring myself to speak first. So we walked in silence, keeping our distance from each other.

"Shadow…" she mumbled quietly.

"What?" I asked with a coldness in my voice that even surprised me. It almost seemed like she flinched when I said it.

"I still don't get it. All those times I tried to get rid of you, yet you still came to help me each time. I did nothing for you to deserve this."

"What is so hard about it?" I asked. This was starting to get on my nerves. Was she really so not used to kindness that she couldn't recognize it completely? "You needed help. I could provide help. So I did. It's called, 'being charitable.'"

"Yeah…" she said, looking down at the dirt path. "But, with the first cave…I left you to _die_ back there."

"Oh, so the thief's feeling guilty now?" That time I could see her physically flinch at my words. But I meant every one of them. I was mad, darn it! "Are you saying you want me to leave, right now, so you can be on your merry way?"

"Well…"

"If I hadn't gone to find you, you'd probably be dead right now! But no appreciation at all! Just a bunch of meaningless questions and interrogations!" I stopped, getting right in her face. "I'm just trying to be a good friend because I like you, Penny! That's _it_! No stings attached and I don't expect anything in return except for maybe a little 'Thank you'!"

"I-I'm sorry…" Penny mumbled, looking incredibly ashamed. Great, on top of everything, now I felt guilty. I didn't answer her. I just kept walking. "Shadow, wait!"

I stopped. "Yes, Penny?" I didn't turn around. I didn't want to look at her.

"Shadow, I'm really sorry and…" she paused. I turned and saw that there were tears welling in her eyes. "…thank you."

I sighed, stepping closer to her. "No problem. Anything for a friend." I smiled at her, earning me the same in return. "Shall we go, then?" She nodded. I smiled again and we continued down the path.

----------

"So, where are we going then?" I asked some time later. This forest seemed endless, like you could walk aimlessly in any direction for hours and still not see an end to the trees.

"I dunno." Penny admitted. "Far away from the city, preferably." I nodded.

"Those Dark Gang thugs are bad news." I paused for a moment, then turned to look at her. "Why were they after you in the first place?"

Penny blushed, looking away from me. "No reason…I don't like to talk about it."

"Alright, that's fine." I said, even though I wasn't convinced. If anything, I as even more curious now.

"What about you?" Penny asked. "What's your story?"

"My mother was captured by the Dark Gang's masters, apparently." I replied, recalling the stories I heard from Isabel so many times. "My father was a member of the Dark Gang. I guess that's why they have an interest in me, too."

"I see." Penny and I walked in silence for a few moments. "What an odd couple of misfits we are, eh?" I nodded.

"Yeah." Penny and I chuckled, grinning at each other. I was enjoying this time we were spending together. A thought occurred to me. "Y'know, the Dark Gang may not be so bad after all."

Penny gave me an odd look. "Why would you say that?"

I smiled at her. "They brought us together, didn't they?"

Penny thought about it for a minute before returning the smile. "Yeah, I guess they did."

----------

A bit later the trees finally ended and opened up onto, to our surprise, the road between Sunpalm and the city. I was pleased to see an end to all the trees, but Penny seemed worried.

"This isn't good." she muttered, looking down the road nervously. "It's too open here. We need to find somewhere we can hide." I nodded, searching around for something. I heard the sound of water across the road.

"I hear something. Follow me." I said, running across the road. Penny sighed, running after me. I followed the sound of the water through a small, almost unnoticeable path that cut through a grove of trees. The path lead out to a small outcropping of rock overlooking the ocean. It was a dead end, unfortunately, with no signs of shelter anywhere.

"Great." Penny sighed. "We don't have time for detours. We need to find a safe place to crash for the night."

I nodded and began to turn to follow her, but stopped. I looked around at our surroundings. I suddenly realized how beautiful the surrounding area was. Fields of flowers covered the hillside above and all around us. A waterfall cascaded into the ocean far below where the sun shimmered in the crystalline water.

"Penny, wait…" I said. She absolutely _had_ to see this.

"What is it? We don't have time!"

"Penny…"

"WHAT!?"

"Come here…" Penny huffed and walked over to me.

"What is it, Shad…oh, wow." Penny plopped down on the ground in awe. I grinned at the expression on her face. "Whoa…how did you find this place? It beautiful!"

"I got lucky, I guess." I smiled at her. Penny continued to look all around us, taking in the view. Sitting this close to her I noticed how beautiful she was. If I had to spend the rest of eternity here admiring her, that'd be fine by me.

"Wow…it's magnificent…"

"Yeah, but it pales in comparison to you." The words left my mouth before I had the chance to stop them. Penny's gaze quickly turned to me. She gave me a look.

"S-stop!" Penny turned away from me, but I noticed her face flushing bright red. "You're making me blush!"

"Hehe…" I chuckled. I turned to face her. "Penny, let's never forget this moment, okay?"

Penny seemed to hesitate for a moment, but nodded. "Yeah." I looked deeply into her dark eyes. Oh, god, how I wanted to be with her. I know I hadn't known her long, but I could already tell I was falling head over heels for her.

"And…and, let's always be together, okay?" I asked cautiously. "Together forever?"

Penny frowned, but the look was quickly washed away by a warm, inviting smile. "Yeah…together forever." My heart skipped a beat or two. Did this mean…she liked me as well?

"So…is this an okay place for tonight?" I asked, being even more cautious this time. I wanted to make sure I didn't go to far too soon. But, luckily, she nodded.

"Yup, I guess this will do fine." We stepped out onto the outcropping, taking shelter beneath a small overhang. The sun was speedily descending beyond the horizon. Penny curled up against me, closing her eyes and drifting off into a restful sleep.

Yup, this would definitely do fine.


	5. Captured!

**A/N: Thank to everyone for sticking with the story! Thank you for reading it, and thank you, BrandonRC, for agreeing with me :)**

**Also, some of you may not be aware of this, but there is another sequel to **_**The Point of No Return **_**out. It's called **_**Beyond the Horizon**_**, and you should check it out!**

**I'm sorry to those of you who already know, but a friend of mine just discovered it and I decided just to get it out in the open to avoid any more confusion.**

_Though they took me away from you,_

_I did everything that I could do_

_No matter how much I wanted to,_

_I couldn't get away…_

"So what do you suppose happened to Houndoom?" I asked Penny the next day. We woke up early and retraced our steps back to the road. Traveling was not near as awkward today as it was the day before; Penny was perfectly friendly and willing to chat.

"I dunno." Penny shrugged, looking around. "Do you have any idea where we're going?"

"Nope." I admitted.

Penny grinned. "Perfect." We both chuckled, but Penny suddenly stopped and perked up her ears. "Wait, wait, shhh…" I stopped and listened hard. I heard the noise, too. It was distant, but getting closer quickly. I sounded like…Actually, it sounded like a _lot_ of…

"Cars!" I shouted. I pulled Penny to the side of the road, where we hid in some bushes. Penny and I had agreed that we would avoid being seen at all costs, to avoid any more business involving the Dark Gang. We peeked out through the bushes. I was right; passing by us were several large gray vehicles, with a strange label plastered on the side. The symbol on each car was…strange. Like it was completely new, yet it's almost as if I've seen it before.

"Looks like they're headed into town." Penny murmured, watching the cars slowly roll by. I nodded. I wonder what this was all about. I looked down the road ad counted the cars.

Five. There were five vehicles, all the same boring color, all heading who-knows-where. Nothing odd about that. Until the last car, a large van, drove by. It wasn't the van that was odd so much as who was in the front seat.

Houndoom. He looked worse for the wear. But if he was here, did that mean this involved the Dark Gang? A sudden chill crept up my spine. The Dark Gang…going into town. I know that it was normal, but I couldn't shake a strange feeling. What were al these vehicles for? It was very suspicious…

I gasped. "Oh, no…you don't think this involves Isabel and Sam?" I glanced back ad forth nervously. If those two got hurt, it'd all be because of me! I couldn't let that happen. Once the cars had passed, I left our hiding spot and stood by the side of the road, watching the vehicles drive off. Without a backward glance, I began to run after them.

"Shadow, wait!" Penny called. I stopped and looked back at her. "You don't know that it involves them! C'mon, let's get moving while the coast is clear." I couldn't argue with that logic. But still, I had a horrible feeling in my gut.

"Penny, I need to go make sure. It won't take too long." I reasoned. Penny huffed, looking away. "Penny, these are the people who saved you. Turning your back is a great way to repay them." Penny considered this for a moment, then sighed.

"Fine," she conceded, "We'll go take a look. I want to be back on the road before the day is over, though!" I nodded and began racing down the road back home.

----------

I wasn't sure how long it took to reach Sam's house. It couldn't have taken too long, because Penny and I arrived there just a few minutes after the vehicles.

But in those few minutes, a lot happened. Already there were many uniformed people walking around as if looking for something. One uniformed man with a clipboard (he seemed to be the leader) knocked on the door. He quickly looked back to one of the vans, where Houndoom nodded to him. Man-With-The-Clipboard knocked again. Isabel answered the door.

"Umm…hello?" She said, glancing around at the all the people with confusion. "How…how can I help you?"

"Hello, ma'am. No need for alarm, we're just here to pick up something that belongs to the company." Then man's voice was stern, level, and a bit monotonic. All I knew was that if he was in league with Houndoom, this guy had to be bad news.

"Uh, hold on." Isabel said. She leaned back into the house. "Hey, Dad! Did anyone leave anything here?" she called into the house. Sam must've said no, because Isabel reappeared and shook her head. "Sorry, I think you have the wrong house."

The Clipboard Man shook his head. "No, you don't understand. It's not a thing; it's a Pokemon." He glanced at his clipboard and looked back up at Isabel. "One Umbreon. Ring a bell?"

Isabel's eyes widened. "Oh, you mean Penny? Are you her owners?"

The man shook his head again, rubbing his temples. "No, no, no." He sighed, reading off of his clipboard. "A male Umbreon. Goes by the name 'Shadow', I believe?" Isabel's eyes widened.

"S-sorry, but he doesn't belong to you. He's part of _our_ family. You must have your facts mixed up." Isabel began to close the door, but Clipboard Man stuck out his hand and stopped it.

"No, ma'am, I believe _you_ have _your_ facts mixed up. You see, that Umbreon belongs to the Beyond corporation in every sense of the term. This," he pointed to his clipboard, "allows us to search the premises for him. Now, if you will excuse us…"

Isabel looked down at the ground. Without looking up, she mumbled, "He's not here."

"Beg pardon?" the Clipboard Man asked, looking every bit annoyed. Isabel looked up, glaring at the man.

"He's not here. He and the other Umbreon left a while ago. I'm sorry, but you have no business being here." She huffed, once again attempting to shut the door. You gotta admit, you had to admire her spirit. I wanted to cheer her on as the Clipboard Man blocked the door again.

"That's where you're wrong." the man said through gritted teeth. "I understand there is another Pokemon here that belongs to us. She would make a suitable substitute." The ma grinned when Isabel's eyes widened in shock.

"No! You're not taking Rose away from us!" The man tried to shove his way into the house, but Isabel blocked the doorway defiantly. They were gonna take Rose away, because of me! I couldn't let them do that! I made my move.

"Hey! Get away from there!" I shouted, running around the side of the house. Penny shot a glare at me, but I ignored her. I seemed to have been quite the distraction; everyone turned and looked straight at me. Isabel was the first one to recover.

"Shadow, run!" she shouted. I would've gladly done so, but the Clipboard Man shouted an order and almost instantly four uniformed workers were down on me. I fought against them but someone tied a strong cord around my legs and lifted me up. I could hear Isabel sobbing as the uniformed workers carried me over to one of the large grey vans and unceremoniously threw me inside, slamming the door shut behind me. I could hear a few more words being exchanged outside, then a shouted command. Next thing I knew, the horde of vehicles was being started up and driving off, away from my home.

Away from Isabel. Away from Rose.

Away from Penny…

----------

_That idiot! _Penny thought furiously. The uniformed men left and took the blasted fool with him. She sighed. Isabel was laying on the porch, sobbing. Penny supposed she should go comfort her. After all, it was Isabel who had taken care of her.

Penny moved over to Isabel and nudged the girl's head with her nose. Isabel looked up, sniffing and wiping away a tear. "Penny?" she asked incredulously. Penny nodded. Isabel sat up and sighed, pulling Penny closer. Penny's first reaction was to pull away and run off, but she fought it. Isabel was sad and needed to be comforted.

And besides, Penny felt the same way for some reason she couldn't figure out.

----------

I'm not sure when I fell asleep. All I know is that when I woke up, I was alone.

And very hungry. But I could attend to that later.

I was in a big, gray room. That's really all there was to say about it. It was rather large, and the walls and ceiling and floor were all painted the exact same shade of gray. There was nothing on the walls, or the floor, or anything. I was absolutely alone. I stood up slowly, taking in my surroundings. Not that there was much to take in. I didn't bother looking for a way out. It was obvious enough that whoever had abducted me had not intended me to escape.

It seemed like forever before something happened. Amazingly, a section of the wall slid away, leaving a large opening out of the room. Sunlight poured in from the exit, blinding me for a second. When I looked out the new doorway, I saw a large, open garden surrounded by walls on four sides. Long, interlocking bars of steel stood between the garden and the sky, effectively stooping any escape attempts. There was no way out of here, either, it seemed, but at least it was better than that horrible gray room.

Stepping out into the garden, the wall slid shut behind me. I was all alone in the garden now, surround on all sides by all assortments of flowers and plants and the like. Oh, wait, I wasn't alone! There was a figure hunched over in a patch of tall grass near the center of the room. Taking a second look around, I noticed a glass partition was built into the far wall, with a few men in long white coats standing on the opposite side of it. I moved closer to the figure in the grass. It was facing away from me and had brilliant crimson fur, like fire. Large, poofy tufts of orange fur were visible around its neck like a mane and on its tail. And the Pokemon was definitely a female.

I approached the Pokemon. There was a murmur of excitement from the men behind the glass. "H-hello?" I asked slowly. The Pokemon, a Flareon I now realized, whipped around, staring up at me with big, wide, scared eyes. It seemed terrified of me. "Are you okay?"

"I…I know what happens here…" the Flareon muttered, her voice almost inaudible. "Please don't hurt me…" I cocked my head at her.

"Hurt you? Why would I do that?" I looked around at the garden. Now I was really curious. What sort of place was this? "Where are we, anyhow?"

"You don't know?" The Flareon asked cautiously. I shook my head. You could almost see the relief in her eyes. I looked up at the window. The men beyond it were all rowning, talking amongst each other.

"The subject does not seem reacting to the female." One spoke aloud, jotting something down on a sheet of paper. He looked to his colleagues. "Run a test for hormonal imbalances-in both of them." One whitecoat nodded and left. The remaining ones switched their gaze back to us. I was even more confused now than I was bofroe. Were they expecting me to do something?

"What's going on here?" I asked Flareon.

"You honestly don't know? It's a bre- Look out!" Flareon dove away. I looked behind me. A whitecoat had appeared out of nowhere with a long syringe. I tried to dodge out of the way but I could not avoid the needle. The man dug it into my shoulder and I collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

When I woke up, I was no longer in the peaceful garden. I was in a large cage. But at least this time I was not alone. Large cages identical to mine lined the walls and were stacked on top of each other about ten high. I stood up but was not able to for very long. My arm hurt. I crawled over to a pitiful plate of food in the corner of the cage and ate, but was still unsatisfied.

_Hey!_ What was that? The voice echoed in my head, but it wasn't mine. _Hey, it's me! Look up!_

I looked up and saw a Pokemon waving at me from a cage across the room, about three cages up. I opened my mouth to talk, but my throat was sore and all I could manage was a hoarse croak.

_Don't speak,_ said the Pokemon in my head. I recognized the Pokemon from somewhere. It was a Ralts. I guess that would explain how it was in my head.

_Of course it does!_ Ralts' voice echoed in my head indignantly. _Please, listen to me! The whitecoats plan to use you for their plot. As long as you're here, you're in danger!_


	6. The Dark Headquarters

**A/N: Wow, this is a **_**looooong**_** chapter. I started typing it, but I got to a certain point where I'm like, 'Well, I don't really want to end it there, so I guess I'll keep going'. So, hope you enjoy it!**

_I realize that I have hurt you,_

_But understand they forced me to!_

_. . .That doesn't change what they made me do._

_I was helpless…I'm sorry._

It all began the next morning. I woke up early the next day to a whitecoat unlocking my cage. She smiled down at me sweetly and picked me up gently into her arms. Her skin was soft and she smelled like lilacs. That in itself almost made me fall back to sleep in her arms.

She carried me out into a long hallway, then brought me to a different room. She set me down on the only furniture in the room, a large metal table, patted my head, and disappeared back through the door. I smiled and sighed, but remembered where I was. Ralts' warning came to mind. I looked around the room, looking for any means of escape should the need arise.

The room was fairly bare. Just the table I was on and a plain steel cabinet on the opposite wall, really. No windows and only the one door. If I needed to get out of there in a hurry, my options weren't looking good.

The female whitecoat returned with a small bag in one hand. She set the bag down next to me, smiled cheerfully, then turned to the cabinet. Pokemon generally have a finely tuned ability to read people's intentions, but I could get nothing from her other than that cheeriness. It was almost relieving to see a smiling face. I decided for a moment that I would be content to just stay here, but I quickly shook the thought away. There were Pokemon in cages. They had something to do with the Dark Gang. I was taken away from my home, my family, and…and Penny.

There was no way I could stay in this place. The whitecoat returned with something in her hand. She smiled at me and scratched my head. How could someone so kind be bad?

That's when she stuck the needle into the base of my neck. I guess looks can be deceiving, eh?

She pulled the syringe away and set it in a container she pulled from the bag. Smiling at me once more, she patted my head.

"We're just going to run some tests on your blood." she said as cheerfully as if she was just discussing the weather with a neighbor. "While we do that, let's see if we can't get some more tests done, hm?" She chuckled and once again scooped me up and carried me from the room. Well, if today started out this badly, it couldn't get much worse, right?

----------

I spoke too soon.

Apparently these scientists knew it, too, because they seemed to want to do everything in their power to make my day worse.

The female whitecoat brought me to another room, a bare white one with a few boxes lined up against the side and a random side on the opposite side. The woman set me down on the floor and sat down on a chair in the corner. She nodded towards the wall, which must've been two-way because a couple of whitecoats appeared through the door and placed an odd machine on my head. At the female whitecoat's signal, one of the two scientists flipped a switch on the machine.

Almost instantly everything in the room disappeared. I was standing, alone, in the room. I looked around, trying to figure out where everyone had gone.

"Shadow?" I turned at the voice. It was Rose, standing before me. I smiled at her.

"Rose! What are you doing here?" I asked. She didn't respond, though. She just looked at me with sorrowful eyes.

"Shadow, we miss you." She said sadly. I took a step closer to her.

"Who's we? Rose, where are we?" Rose just shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Shadow." She turned and disappeared. Literally, just disappeared. She was there one moment, and now she wasn't.

"Rose?" I asked, searching for her. "Rose?"

"Shadow!" I turned towards the voice again, this time expecting Rose. I grinned.

But my smile quickly faded. It was my mother standing just a few feet from me. "Oh, it's you." I muttered. She nodded.

"Oh, I'm so glad I found you. We miss you, you know." She smiled at me. It made me sick.

"Found me?" I scoffed. "You're the one who abandoned Rose and me in the first place!" She looked hurt, but I was glad. She needed to know how I felt about her.

"You…you can't really mean that, can you?" She took a hesitant step towards me. I nodded.

"Yes I can…and I do." Mom looked disappointed for a moment, then, just like Rose, vanished into thin air. I sighed. "What the hell is going on…"

This time when I heard the voice, I was more than relieved to hear it. "Oh, Shadow!" It was Penny. I grinned and ran up to her.

"Penny, I'm so glad you're okay…" Penny smiled back at me.

"Shadow…I'm so sorry. All of this nonsense…it's ridiculous." I nodded. I opened my mouth to speak, but she interrupted. "Shadow…let's leave this place. We can leave here and start a new life…together."

My heart started pumping faster. "P-penny…you mean it?" She nodded, burying her face into my chest. I closed my eyes and rested my head on her shoulder, wishing the moment would last forever. But when I opened my eyes, she was gone and the whitecoats were back. One of them removed the machine from my head.

The three whitecoats spoke silently for a moment, then the female picked me up once again.

"Well, your reactions to outside influences went just as expected." She smiled, stroking me. "I guess you have a little crush on that other Umbreon, eh?" She chuckled and turned another corner. We arrived back at the room filled with cages and brought me back to mine, setting me inside it and locking it up. "I'll be back for you in a little while, okay?" She smiled and walked off.

I sighed. My heart felt like it had been torn in two. I should've figured it was just some sort of illusion, though. I should've realized Penny would never _really_ feel that way about me.

_Sounds like someone has self-esteem issues._ Ralts' voice echoed in my head. I looked up to see him leaning against the side of his cage, watching me. _Making yourself feel bad won't help you out in here. Especially if you ever want to see her again._

I sighed again. He was right, of course. I curled up on the floor of my cage and closed my eyes. I suddenly felt exhausted. Al this was too much to take in all at once. I still didn't even know where I was!

_You're in a facility of a company called Beyond. These scientists you see are the owners of the Pokemon in the Dark Gang._ Ralts' voice sounded in my head. I wondered how I was supposed to answer him. _Just think._

_Alright,_ I thought, _what sort of facility? _

There was a pause, as if Ralts was hesitating with his answer. _It's a breeding and research facility. They're trying to get you to…well, I'm sure you get the picture._

_What!?_ I thought, alarmed. _Why me, of all people?_

_Because of your mother._ Oh, of course. It all boils down to her once again. _No, you don't understand. It's not her fault. The scientists want you because of what you are because of what she is._

_. . .huh?_ He lost me with that one. What does Cici have to do with this? And what did he mean by, 'because of what she is'?

_Your mother. . .is a human. She was transformed into a Pokemon. The scientists want you especially because you are a hybrid result of their experiments._

Ralts went on to explain how because I was a hybrid, the whitecoats believed that I had some hidden, incredible power. You know how I said earlier that I was taking in too much at once? Well, that paled in comparison to this.

_Wow. . ._I thought, _That's quite the load there. . .but how can I be sure you're not lying? How do you know all this, anyways?_

_You can't._ Ralts admitted. _You'll just have to trust me. And I only know because I overheard the scientists talking about it._

Made sense, I guess. _Why are you helping me?_ I asked. I realized by saying that I sounded like Penny.

_Because I believe you do have some sort of unique power, and if these humans ever got control of it, they would misuse it. _Ralts didn't seem to be lying. But could I really trust him?

I didn't have much more time to ponder over it because the female whitecoat came in again and took me from the cage with a smile.

----------

The rest of my day was pretty much the same. Various tests, followed by a 20-minute break in between each one.

They had me running on treadmills, drawing various fluids from my body, and testing my reflexes and psyche until I was sore, weak, and exhausted. But the whitecoats were relentless! The breaks were not near enough. I barely had time to rest before I was whisked away to the next experiment.

Sometime late in the afternoon they finally set a food and water bowl in my cage. I was absolutely starving, but I didn't eat or drink at all in case they put some sort of drug in it. I couldn't take any chances. I ignored my aching stomach and curled up in the corner of my cell.

A loud _CLANG!_ woke me up a few minutes later. Further down in the rows of cages, a group of whitecoats were taking a Pokemon from a cage. I identified the Pokemon as the Flareon from yesterday.

_Poor girl._ Ralts sighed. _She's been here practically since the day she was born._

_Really?_ I suddenly felt piteous towards her. I couldn't imagine being here my whole life. _She's the one the scientists have. . .partnered me with, right?_

_Right. And you're not the first. _I looked back down the room. The poor girl. . .she didn't deserve this. _I'm sure they're running the same tests on her that they did on you._

_Great, make me feel even _more_ guilty. _I thought sardonically. I sighed. This was all my fault. Actually, it was my mother's fault. I was her kid, after all!

_Hey, now that's not fair. _I'm sure if I could see Ralts' face right now, he'd be scowling. _She herself was raped by one of Dark Gang. It was through the kindness in her heart that she even kept you and your sister._

That it me hard. _Wow…I never knew._ I thought about that for a moment, then a thought occurred. _Why do you think she left us, then?_

I couldn't hear Ralts' answer, because right at that moment my break was over. The two whitecoats, one carrying Flareon, came over to my cage and unlocked it. One of them scooped me up and carried the two of us away.

----------

We were back in the field.

Despite the comfortable temperature, I was shaking. Almost instantly Flareon had curled up into a ball and began whimpering. That just made me feel so much worse. I mean, this has probably happened to her several times before…

"Hey…" I said softly. She flinched. "Hey…there's no need to be afraid. I'm not going to…to do what they brought us here to do." Flareon slowly lifted up her head.

"How can I trust you?" Her voice was accusing, but I didn't blame her.

"You can't," I said, echoing the very same words Ralts had said to me not long ago. "You'll just have to try."

Flareon looked me over for a moment. She must have decided that I was trustworthy, because she sat up and turned to me. "Alright, I'll trust you."

I smiled at her. "I'm Shadow, by the way. What's your name?"

"Liekkau." I raised an eyebrow at her. She smiled. "Up in the mountains where I'm from, it means, 'Flame Beauty' in the local tongue." She blushed. "My trainer gave it to me before I was taken away."

"It's a beautiful name. Fitting." She smiled at me and turned away again. I looked up at the window. There were three whitecoats behind the glass, the female and the two that brought Liekkau and I here. They looked like they were arguing about something. I suspected it was us.

The female whitecoat looked like she gave an order to one of them, quickly jabbing him in the chest with a finger then pointing out at us. The whitecoat sighed and disappeared from view.

"What are you looking at?" Liekkau asked. I was about to respond when the whitecoat appeared from one of the many hidden side doors. He nudged me closer to Liekkau with his foot.

"Well? Go on. . .do your thing." He sounded incredibly bored. Liekkau shot a glance at me. I shrugged.

"Alright, Isaac." The voice seemed to come from above us. I looked over to the window and saw that the female whitecoat was speaking into some microphone. "They're still unresponsive. We'll try again tomorrow." She clicked off the microphone and disappeared from view along with the other whitecoat. The whitecoat Isaac sighed.

"C'mon, let's go." He muttered, gesturing for us to follow. Neither of us moved. Isaac sighed again and pulled a long metal rod from his belt. He raised it above his head as if to strike me with it.

I cringed, bracing myself for the blow. What I didn't expect, though, was the electric shock the knocked me out cold almost instantly. I now know today that the shock was the voltage-equivalent of a Thunderbolt attack. Needless to say, I was out for the rest of the night.

I had a dream that night. A dream about Penny and I. We were back at the place near the waterfall that I had found. And we were both…happy. I hoped that we could return there someday. But if I had known why we'd be back there, I would've thought otherwise.

----------

The next morning I was woken up by a loud noise. I looked up and, to my dismay, saw that it was the whitecoat Isaac again. Without a word he picked me up and carried me off.

When we came to the room a few minutes later, he set me down and locked a clamp around my leg and stuck a small needle attached to a long wire in the same leg. I looked up at him with confusion, but he ignored me and stood up and left the room silently.

I had a feeling I wasn't going to like what they were planning. A few moments later, a different scientist came in with Houndoom on a leash.

When Houndoom saw me, he went crazy. Had it not been for the leash and the muzzle he was wearing, I'm pretty sure he would've tried to kill me right there. The whitecoat knelt down and whispered something in Houndoom's ear. Houndoom nodded and calmed a bit as the whitecoat removed the muzzle and leash, but still retained the look of bloodlust in his eyes.

"Well hey there, sport!" Houndoom grinned wickedly. "How've you been?" I didn't answer him. "How long's it been? Oh, yeah, the mountain! Now I remember. . ." He glared at me.

"What do these whitecoats want from me?" I asked. Houndoom shrugged.

"The want you to mate with one of the test subjects, apparently. I dunno, though. You don't look suitable to be anyone's mate. 'Specially that little whore of a friend you've got."

"SHE IS NOT A-!"

"Hey, hey, hey! Truce! Pacem!" Despite his words, Houndoom was obviously enjoying the fact that he had set me off. "Didn't mean any harm by it. Just saying."

"Why are you here?" I growled at him through clenched teeth.

"Dunno." He shrugged. "Scientist says I'm supposed to piss you off, so. . ." He lashed out with a claw and slashed me across the face. I cried out, but quickly got up and ran at him, forgetting the shackle holding me back. Houndoom grinned. "Oh, this is fun!"

I growled at him, but he just laughed. I could feel that same cloud over my heart that I felt at the mountain. It seemed to do something the first time I felt it, so maybe it could do it again. . .

The scientist, who had been watching a small machine that the needle in my arm was connected to, jumped up in excitement. The machine started beeping. The whitecoat pressed a button on the wall. Before I could use the cloud against Houndoom, a shock went through my shackle and paralyzed my muscles, making me collapse to the ground. This just made Houndoom laugh harder. The last thing I heard as the whitecoat unshackled me and carried me back to my cell was Houndoom's hysterical cries.

----------

_I see. . ._ Ralts said, deep in thought. I explained what happened in the room to him as soon as I got back. _I'm pretty sure I know what they were trying to do. By making you angry, they were forcing your hormones to flow at an increased rate. If they try it again, avoid getting angry._

_Alright._ I said, nodding.

_The test isn't what bothers me, though. It sounds like this metaphorical 'cloud' you speak of could be your unique power. _Ralts continued. _And it looks like they've found out about it already._

The female whitecoat came and unlocked my cage, taking me out, and carrying me off as usual. She brought me back to the field room, setting me down in the middle near Liekkau. She pulled a syringe from her belt and stuck it into the base of my neck, emptying its contents. Satisfied, she took the needle away and went into the control room behind the glass partition.

"When will they ever stop?" Liekkau thought out loud. I shrugged. The strangest feeling had just come over me. Liekkau took a step closer to me. "I don't think I've ever thanked you for your kindness. You're the only one who's. . .well, who's _resisted_ before." She smiled. I gave a weak grin back.

"Yeah…no problem." It was the strangest thing. Suddenly, I couldn't think of anything other than how entrancing Liekkau smelled…and how soft her silky fur looked…and- No! It must've been something in that needle…they're making it harder for me to resist!

"I feel like I should reward you in some way. . ." Liekkau said shyly. _Oh, no, please don't. . ._ I though nervously. Liekkau leaned forward and nuzzled my face. That completely drove me over the edge. I jumped up and ran a few feet away. Liekkau looked at me with a mixture of shock and confusion. "Shadow, what's wrong?"

"N-nothing…" I lied. "You see…I already have someone back in the outside, and…" Liekkau nodded understandingly. I sighed with relief. I would have to try harder to control myself.

Roughly ten minutes later one of the whitecoats came and picked Liekkau up and carried us back to our respective cages. Only when I was safely away from her did I sigh and relax my tensed muscles.

----------

The rest of my day went basically the same. Experiments with a twenty minute break in between. But instead of doing the normal experiments, they alternated between the anger exercise with Houndoom and placing me out in the field and injecting more of whatever it was in that syringe. As the day went on, it got harder and harder to control myself. I found I was just getting angrier and angrier.

_It's hormones they're injecting you with. No doubt about it. _That was all Ralts had to say on the subject. It was getting on towards night and I heard the whitecoats say they'd only try one more time, so I figured I was just about in the clear…for today.

_Gee…that's useful._ I thought as the whitecoat once again whisked me off to the field. He injected some more of that fluid into my neck.

"Hello, Shadow." Liekkau yawned, taking a step towards me. I shuddered. Her smell was so…_enticing_.

"H-hi…Liekkau." I grunted with difficulty. My breathing was becoming heavy and labored.

"Are…are you feeling alright, Shadow?" Liekkau took another cautious step towards me. Which was just the opposite of what I need right now. My thoughts were all scrambled. I couldn't think straight because every other thing that would flash into my mind was _her_.

"Y…y…yeah, just…just stand…stand…stand back!" I grunted. It was becoming very, very, hard to control myself.

"Shadow…what's wrong?" She took yet another tentative step towards me.

That did it. It drove me over the top. I truly regret needing to say that I broke my promise to her. I couldn't control myself.

And from what I understand, you could hear her screaming all the way back in the room with the cages.

----------

After the whitecoats did their little victory dance and brought us back to our cages, I spent the greater part of the night wallowing in the corner in my own self-pity. How could I have been so weak? To completely lose it like that? How…how could I trust myself when others can't even trust me?

_Hey…_ said that familiar voice in my head. _Don't beat yourself up about it. In fact, I'm incredibly surprised you held out as long as you did._

_Leave me alone._ I thought, pushing his voice from my head. I still had some more wallowing to do.

I wasn't surprised when I was woken up by the sound of my cage being opened. When I opened my eyes, though, it was still dark. There were two whitecoats outside my cage door; one was holding some pokemon in his arms, and the other was the female, who had opened my cage.

I growled at the female. I was ticked off right now. I didn't want to be messed with in any way, shape, or form. But when she put a finger to her lips, I realized that this was a different female whitecoat. Calming a bit, but still keeping wary, I climbed out of my cage.

I was inspecting the two whitecoats for any sign of a trap when something happened to my great surprise; the pokemon in the man's arms jumped down and crossed over to me.

It was Penny.

"Penny!" I said in a loud whisper, careful not to wake any of the other caged Pokemon. "What are you doing here?" Dumb question, I know.

"We're going to get you out of here! Now let's go!" She nodded to the whitecoats, who returned the gesture and began down the room. They had just reached the door when I stopped.

"What is it?" Penny hissed, turning back to me.

"Wait! If we're getting out of here, there's someone I want to bring with us."

"We don't have _time_!" Penny insisted, but I took off in the other direction again. I found the lift that was used to reach higher levels and pushed it down the row of cage, stopping at the cage across from mine. As silently as I could, I rose the lift up about three cages high.

"Ralts!" I whispered. He was already standing there, waiting for me.

_How do you plan on getting me out of here?_ He said, getting right to business. I thought about it for a moment, then got an idea. _Oh, no…don't even think about it. Think of the consequen-_

But I had already started reaching deep within myself, trying to locate the dark cloud. I found it dug deep within my heart and concentrated on it's energy, imagining a slashing motion across the padlock on Ralts' cage. The padlock fell to the floor with a dull _thud_.

Almost instantly all hell broke loose. Alarms went off and lights went flashing. I could hear footsteps from the other side of the walls and ceiling.

"Let's go!" Penny called from the bottom floor. I swung Ralts' door open and help him step down onto the lift. We rode it down and stepped off onto the ground floor. I nodded to Penny, then stopped.

"Go on without me, I'll catch up!" I shouted and began running in the opposite direction.

"I'll do no such thing!" Penny shouted. "Shadow!"

_Oh, dear, he's not really going to do it, is he?_

I ran down the hallway, searching frantically through the cages on the ground floor. At last I reached it. I did the same maneuver with this door's lock as I did with Ralts'; this time it made me feel a little dizzy. I swung open the door.

"C'mon, quick!" I said. Liekkau was curled up in the far corner, facing away from me. She lifted her head up and looked at me. There were tears running down her face.

"Why should I?" Her words were as cold as ice and as sharp as daggers.

"Because this may be your only chance to leave this place and start a better life! Trust me!" I could practically hear the whitecoats shouting on the other side of the door.

"How can I trust you after what you did to me?" Liekkau's voice took on a sobbing tone; she sniffed. I heard the door being unlocked at the end of the room.

"Shadow…" Penny warned. The flashing lights were driving me crazy. We didn't have time for this!

"You can't!" I shouted over the piercing shriek of the alarms. "But you'll just have to try! Don't you think you deserve something better than this!?" Liekkau just stared at me, absorbing my words.

"Shadow, come _on_!" Penny shouted.

"Please, quickly!" I said. Liekkau's looked didn't change. "Look…please forgive me. I…I couldn't control myself. I can't explain it right now, but once you understand what the whitecoats did to me…" The door on the end of the room opened briefly then slammed shut. "But we don't have time! Please…I know you deserve a better life than this!" I looked at her with pleading eyes for several moments before she finally said,

"Alright, let's go." I helped her up and we ran back to join up with Penny and Ralts. We opened the door slowly. The hallway was empty. There was a loud commotion going in the opposite direction down one path. We started running down the other one, heading for the exit.

"What happened to the whitecoats?" I asked Penny when I caught up with her.

"They said they were going to lure the other scientists away then meet us outside later." I nodded. No one said anything else until we were all safely out the front door. We turned and ran deep into the woods surrounding the building. I took one last look behind me to try to find the whitecoats who had helped us, but all I saw was a pair of Pokemon running away from the building on the other side. I sighed.

"Alright, then. Let's go."


	7. Making amends

**A/N: So, I'm going for something a bit different this time. I altered the style just a tad, and I'm going to try to make things a bit more...for lack of a better word, realistic. So, hope you enjoy, and any comments or concerns you may have are appreciated.**

**Also, I'd like to say this for the last time: I will now be returning to a regular updating schedule. I just got done recovering from my surgery, and our computer is basically fixed. Starting now I'll try to fit in at least two or three updates per week. Thanks to all of those who have been so patient!**

_Tho' things didn't go our way,_

_We new at the end of the day_

_That everything would be okay._

_And so. . . our journey began._

At that very moment, no creature, no matter how fast, could have caught up with our frantic escape. The only sounds I was aware of were the pounding of feet on the earth and the faint crunching of the underbrush. I took the lead, knowing immediately where were heading to.

Sam's house.

I dared a quick glance around; Penny looked solemn, concentrating straight ahead with ruthless vigor, while Ralts seemed to be thinking and Liekkau...well, she just lonely and apprehensive, like she would rather be anywhere else. I couldn't really blame her.

"So what's the plan?" Penny broke the silence, now running in time beside me. I sighed, closing my eyes in concentration.

"First... Sam's house," I said confidently, "Then we're outta here, into the mountains."

"Sam's house?"

I nodded sheepishly. "For, y'know, supplies and stuff..." I trailed off, turning my attention forward again.

"Do you really want to say goodbye that badly?" Penny asked softly so the other two wouldn't hear.

". . .yes." I admitted. I was determined to see Rose and Isabel and all them again before we left. I wasn't going to make the same mistake as my mother.

--

"Shadow! Penny!" Isabel was absolutely ecstatic when we showed up at the front door. "You're okay! Oh, they _did_ save you! Oh, come in, hurry!" I looked at Penny; she shrugged and we all followed her inside.

Even though the sun was just beginning its slow journey across the sky, the overpowering smell of food was already wafting throughout the house. Ralts and Liekkau gazed in wonderment at the house while Penny followed Isabel into the kitchen. The warmth and familiarity of the house made me feel safe for the first time in quite a while. Although we've only been gone for a day or two, it felt like I had been away for a lifetime.

It was good to be home.

"Shadow!" The familiar voice lifted my spirits even higher. It was Rose. As she drew closer, the look on her face was unreadable; I hoped she was glad to see me.

"Hiya, Rose." I smiled at her and she returned the gesture, then promptly turned on the spot and smacked me roughly with her tail. "Ow!"

"Don't you ever pull a stunt like that again!" She shouted, the obvious signs of tears beginning to well up in her eyes. "W-we were so worried..."

"Rose..." I tried to console her, but she turned and ran off in the opposite direction.

_Family trouble?_ Ralts' voice inquired.

_Not now._ I thought back, brushing him aside in my head and following the sweet smells into the kitchen.

--

Even at this hour, Isabel was busy hovering too and fro, mixing this and stirring that. Penny was sitting expectantly at the table, watching Isabel work with interest. Both heads turned as I stepped through the doorway.

"Oh, Shadow! I was just telling Penny how we'll have to set up rooms for your friends. I'm sure we can find somewhere. Breakfast will be ready soon if you're hungry, and tomorrow we can. . ." She paused as she noticed the somber expression I was wearing. Slowly, but surely, she caught on. ". . .you're not staying, are you?" I shook my head slowly. Isabel stood there for a moment, taking it all in, causing her to stumble a bit but catch herself on the counter.

"Oh." she said sadly, looking at me, then at Penny, then back to me. "Well, how long will you be gone?" I shrugged; there was no telling how long we would be gone. It was a distinct possibility that we would never return. Isabel's face fell, but was quickly replaced with a hopeful upward glance. "Well, you can stay for breakfast, right?" I couldn't deny my rumbling stomach, especially with the amount of delightful smells in the air. I nodded. Isabel smiled and picked herself up. "Would you two like to help?" she asked innocently, going back to her work. Penny and I nodded; we were both aware that it would be our last good meal for quite a while.

--

The two men strode swiftly down the street, catching many curious glances at their full-body gray uniforms. The two men never spoke a word to each other. Their objective was clear. There was nothing to say.

They were told that their targets were in the dining room, eating. The two men didn't ask how their intelligence got this info; it wasn't their place to ask. All they knew was that Beyond was _powerful_, more so than people would think. As long as they kept their mouths shut, there would be no problems.

The men arrived at the desired house and paused at the front gate for a moment before throwing it open and striding up to the door slowly, careful not to make too much of a scene. One man carried a large steel cage; the other an electric baton. They knew they would end up using both. The first man knocked on the door with his free hand. The sound of a chair scraping across the floor brought a short pause.

"Hello?" A young, attractive woman answered the door, opening it just a crack. Swiftly and professionally, the second man whipped out his baton and jammed the metal tip into the woman, Isabel's, ribs. Her eyes widened in shock then she slunk to the floor in a heap. The agents hefted the cage through the doorway and after a brief search, found their target.

"Victory for Beyond." the first one muttered, slamming the door closed and slipping a padlock onto it. The other agent nodded in agreement.

--

A short goodbye was all there was time for after we were all sufficiently fed. Rose hadn't been there to say goodbye with Isabel and Ambipom, but I saw her watch us leave from an upstairs window.

We took the short route out of the city, cutting around Sam's house into the woods and, eventually, the foothills of the Geori Mountains. There was an old weather-beaten trail that led deep into the mountains. We followed it but never actually traveled on it in case of hikers or mountaineers. The less we were seen, the better. We traveled this way through most of the day, taking short rests now and then, and the sun was just beginning to set when we arrived at a small hollow in the face of the mountain. The hollow had a wide opening and a narrow, slanted path that opened up to a larger cavern deeper inside the mountain about 20 feet wide.

"Will this do for tonight?" I asked. Ralts nodded and took a seat in a corner. Liekkau said nothing and curled up as far from the entrance as she could with her back facing us. I felt I should have said something to her then, so I looked at Penny for help. She nodded towards the exit and left, leaving me inside. I looked around at the other two then sighed and followed her out.

Penny was sitting at the edge of the path, watching the night sky from the cliffside. I sat down next to her.

"They say the penumbra is the darkest shadow cast by the moon." Penny muttered, not breaking her gaze away from the silver orb now just appearing in the dark sky.

"Huh." I said. "Well, in my opinion, I'd say it's the loveliest part." Penny looked at me cock-eyed. "Why did you come for me?"

Penny shook her head and looked back up at the sky. "Wasn't my idea. Those two strangers wanted to."

"The whitecoats?"

She shook her head again. "No, they weren't whitecoats. They showed up at Sam's house a few days ago."

"Ah." There was an awkward pause. "So you had no say in the matter?"

"Don't get me wrong," she said, looking back at me with intensity. "It's not like I didn't want to rescue you or anything."

"You didn't have to go with them, you know." I pointed out. "You could've stayed and lived happily with Isabel."

Penny shrugged. "I dunno. That just doesn't. . .appeal to me as much." Penny looked like she wanted to say something else but was hesitant to say it.

"What's wrong?" I ventured. She shrugged, still looking undecided.

"Shadow. . ." she said it so quietly that I barely picked it up. Her head was turned away, purposely avoiding my gaze. "What the strangers said. . .about the Flareon. You didn't really. . .did you?" She turned and watched me with concern written all over her face. This side of Penny was completely unlike the one I met not long ago. She seemed. . .softer and almost scared, or nervous. I just looked at her a moment, unable to find the right words, then turned away.

"Oh, Shadow. . ."

"Look," I snapped. "It was beyond my control, alright? I feel bad enough as it is."

"Is that why you brought her?" Penny asked softly after another moments' hesitation.

"Yeah." I replied. There was a respectful silence as Penny allowed me to gather my thoughts. This new, softer Penny was surprising. Not bad, just not the same as I first pictured her. And I liked it. It suited her with her kind eyes, her amazing intelligence, her natural beauty, her heavenly scent. . .

"Shadow?" Penny's voice peeled me from my tangle of adjectives.

"Yes, Penny?"

"Get off." I realized that I was practically leaning on top of her with my chin rested atop her shoulder. I took a step back.

"Heh. . .sorry, my bad." I grinned at her sheepishly, trying to cover up my extreme embarrassment. "I guess me body is still burning out the rest of those hormones." I chuckled nervously, but Penny did not seem amused. She sighed and shook her head.

"Are you going to be doing this the whole time _she's_ coming with us?"

I shook my head. "No, don't worry about it. I'll behave." Penny chuckled.

"Just as long as I don't see you two making googly eyes at each other." She laughed. I felt my face go red, but that just made her smile at me in a good-natured way. After a moment, "Y'know, that 'loveliest part' line was pretty corny."

I grinned. "Yeah, well, you set me up for it." We both laughed and looked at each other. We watched one another for a moment, gazing deeply into the other's eyes. It was like a sudden, undeniable force was pulling us together as we began leaning slowly, ever so slowly, towards each other.

Penny shook her head, stepping back. "Good night Shadow." She turned suddenly and disappeared through the entrance to our little shelter.

"G'night, Penny." I called after her miserably. I watched the moon ascend slowly overhead for a while before heading back inside.

--

_That was too close.­ _Penny thought to herself, curling up inside their makeshift home. _I can't believe he. . .we almost. . ._

It's not like Shadow was a bad person, not by any means. It's just. . . Penny had been down that road before, and it always ended in pain.

_You're falling for him, penny, you idiot._ she thought, shaking her head. _You have to be more careful. Your heart can't afford to break twice. . ._

--

We woke up at the crack of dawn the next day. Everyone got up quickly and silently. We had a head start and we'd be damned if we lost it.

As we began down the path by the light of the new sun peeking over the horizon, Penny caught pace and strode alongside me. The previous night's events were pushed to the back of our minds; neither of us wanted to bother dwelling over what had almost gone on. Silently, she nodded over her shoulder towards Liekkau, who had not said a word since we escaped the facility. I turned back to Penny, who gave me a quick nod of encouragement.

Groaning, I slowed my pace until I was even with Liekkau. If she saw me, she gave no indication and kept her gaze firmly locked on the ground. I really didn't want to deal with this right now, but the sooner we got it out of the way, the better off we'd be.

"Liekkau?" I asked her softly. She did not react, so I thought I'd try again. "Liekkau?" Still no response. Irritated, I looked up to Penny for help, but she just gave me another encouraging nod.

"So. . .you say you're from the mountains?" I asked her, hoping for a response this time. Liekkau simply turned her head away. I grit my teeth in frustration, looking to Penny for support. Penny sighed and mouthed 'We'll give you a moment' to me, then whispered something to Ralts. The two took off ahead, leaving me walking beside the Flareon.

"Liekkau." I said firmly, stepping in front of her. "Hear me out for a moment." Liekkau stopped and looked up into the sky as if for some sort of sign.

"Alright." she sighed, giving in. I smiled at my victory but realized that I didn't know where to start. I tapped my forehead in frustration.

"Liekkau. . ." I said again, beginning to sound like a broken record, "I'm sorry. You know I'm sorry. You have every reason to be upset, but you can't keep acting like this all the time. I don't know what I did to make you so sullen-"

"You raped me." She pointed out. "I trusted you, and you raped me." Ouch. I sounded like a monster when it was put that way.

"The whitecoats forced me to!" I rebutted, furrowing my brow. Liekkau jumped, looking shocked at my outburst. I took a deep breath, getting my emotions back in line. "The point is I never wanted to. If I could, I would go back and stop myself from ever giving in so easily. But if you're going to travel with us, you'll have to forgive me at some point. So what do you say?" I smiled at her hopefully, holding out a paw. "Shall we start over?"

Liekkau considered it for a moment, then sighed and placed her paw against mine. "Sure."

Immediately it was like the world had been lifted from my shoulders. Seeing our paws entwined was like a sign of hope, and it brought a smile to both out faces.

"I'm Shadow."

"Liekkau," she giggled, "A pleasure to meet you."

A scream interrupted our revised introductions.

"Penny." I said, recognizing the voice instantly. "We need to go." Without a moment's hesitation, we dashed uphill along the path, our bond finally reforming. At the top, we gasped at what we saw. Penny was screaming her lungs out, trapped in the iron grip of a Seviper. The large snake was coiled around her, glaring down on her with a single red eye. Ralts was nowhere to be seen.

"WHERE IS SHE?!" The snake demanded, its long wicked fangs hovering inches fro Penny's neck.

"I'm telling you! I don't know where your daughter is!" Penny cried hoarsely, struggling for breath.

"LIES!" The Seviper shouted, squeezing Penny tighter. The poor Umbreon was beginning to look blue in the face; she wouldn't last much longer without asphyxiating.

"Hey, Seviper!" I shouted, choosing now to interject. I could've been mistaken as a black bullet as I ran full-force at the snake, teeth bared. "Let her go!" The snake hissed in annoyance and threw Penny aside, giving me a challenging swing of its bladed tail. I ducked beneath the attack and sunk my teeth in the monster's tough scales, barely leaving a mark.

"WHERE HAVE THEY TAKEN HER!?" The furious creature cried, smacking me away with a dizzying strike of its tail, leaving me seeing stars.

"Taken who? We don't know what you're talking about!" I shouted, trying to recover as quickly as I could. I did a quick scan of the situation: Liekkau had rushed over to aid the unconscious Penny a few feet away. Good. At least they were safe, for now.

"MY DAUGHTER, FOOL!" The Seviper howled, coiling its powerful body around me in a crushing grip before I had a chance to react. "THE HUMANS HAVE TAKEN HER FROM ME!" I squeezed my eyes shut to avoid the snake's paralyzing gaze. I had to think of something, but it was nearly impossible with the snake constricting my air flow.

Suddenly, I realized I had a single shot, but that was it. Summoning the last of my willpower, I reached within myself and found the cloud of black. I braced myself and let loose the power.

Nothing happened.

Surprised, I tried again. It was harder this time, but I got ahold of it and imagined with all my might that it would do something; slashing, blasting, _something_ to my enemy.

And as quickly as it had come, the grip of the snake was gone. Air filled my lungs with a _WHOOSH!_ My head was swimming and when I took a tentative step my stomach lurched. I staggered and collapsed completely, blacking out before I even hit the ground.

--

Elsewhere, a boy and his Linoone played happily in the park. It was a beautiful day; the sun was shining, the air was clear, and the brisk morning air was doing wonders for the boy and his companion. The boy scooped up the Linoone's favorite toy, a shiny red throwing disk, and gave it a toss across the park.

"Go get it, boy!" The boy cried with absolute glee, giggling as the small ferret-like Pokemon dashed across the park, ducking around trees and other parkgoers. The disk flew over the low wall and was caught by a strange man. The unsuspecting Pokemon nearly ran into the man, coming to a stop at his feet. The Pokemon barked in ecstasy, thinking the man had joined their game.

"Oh, yes, you'll do perfectly. . ." The man muttered, grinning slyly down at the Linoone. In one quick motion, he snatched the Pokemon in a sack and disappeared into the small throng of people passing through.

A few minutes later the boy would come looking for his companion, but all he would find was the abandoned red flying disk.


	8. The Suspended City

"

**A/N: Bleah. Short update time, hurrah!**

**Except that I feel this chapter was a bit rushed. Oh, well.**

**I wanted to thank all those who leave reviews. You really don't know what it means to me, you guys. It really helps me get through the day some days, y'know?**

**So, that's about it. Enjoy!**

_Trusting the words of a stranger,_

_To the north we longed to flee,_

_I never wanted to look for danger,_

_But it managed to find me._

". . ."

. . .voices?

". . .?"

". . .!"

Yeah, definitely voices. They were muffled, though, but they sounded familiar. And they sounded like they were getting closer.

". . .He's not. . ._dead_, is he?"

"Of course not. Don't be ridiculous."

". . .You don't sound very sure."

_Be quiet! He's waking up!_

I cracked one bleary eye open, greeted by the worried faces of Penny and Liekkau. Penny smiled.

"Hey there, sleepyhead," she said, relaxing a bit. Liekkau gave a sigh of relief, sitting down on the other side of me. A thought occurred.

"The Seviper! Where is he?" I lifted my head to look for the snake, but he was nowhere to be found. In fact, this wasn't even where I fought him. It looked like we were further up in the mountains. From the sound of rushing water I guessed we were probably near the Clearspring River.

Penny shook her head. "We managed to get away while it was knocked out. You've been out for a few hours." I shook my throbbing head. I guess that made sense. The sun was high overhead, so it must've been around noon.

"Why'd he attack in the first place?" I wondered out loud, trying to gather my thoughts. Penny shrugged.

"Ralts and I just got to the top of the hill when he suddenly attacked us. He was whipped into such a frenzy that we couldn't calm him down. If you and Liekkau hadn't shown up when you did. . ." She shuddered.

"How did you do that, anyways?" Liekkau piped in. Seeing the look on my face, she explained. "I looked over and saw Seviper go flying off of you. I've never seen anything like it before."

"Oh," I said, thinking. "I'm not entirely sure. But it worked, right?"

Penny nodded. "It sure did. That was brilliant."

_No, it was _stupid_! _Ralts shoved Penny aside, taking up my vision. His voice seemed to echo through the air, so I assumed he was somehow speaking to everyone. _You can kill yourself if you use your power as recklessly as that!_

"My...what?" I asked lamely, my head still swimming. Ralts sighed, rubbing his temples in aggravation. He waved a hand at Liekkau and Penny.

_You two. Go, let me talk to him alone._ Ralts muttered, folding his arms. The girls shrugged and walked off.

"What power are you talking about? You mean that cloud?" I asked. Ralts nodded, helping me into a sitting position.

_Yes, your. . .cloud. I suppose I should start from the beginning. _Ralts thought for a minute before continuing. _This 'cloud' you speak of is what we Pokemon call the Elaika, or Aura. The Aura connects all Pokemon and ties them to this earth; we're all part of the grand Aura web._

_Every Aura is unique, and is what gives each Pokemon their own power. But you- you're a special case. Your mother was a human, so when she became a Pokemon, an Aura was created- an artificial Aura. This Aura is not connected to the rest of the Aura web, and has been passed down onto her kin. You, Shadow, have a special Aura, disconnected from all others._

_Now the Aura has been a secret known only to Pokemon. But recently this organization- Beyond- has discovered the secret of the aura's power. By turning your mother into one of us, they've proven that they can create Aura, and by extension, control it. Do you know what this means?_

My head was reeling a bit from all this information all at once. I realized that Ralts' question wasn't rhetoric and shook my head.

Ralts sighed. _I believe Beyond is up to something, something that involves manipulating the Aura. If they succeed, they can control all Pokemon on the planet- except you, your mother, and your sister. You see, they yet don't know the products of their experiments are not connected to the Aura web. I believe it is you who must put a stop to Beyond before they are able to put their plan into action!_

All this was almost too much to bear. Me? Stop. . ._them_? "But. . .but how do I do that? I don't even know who these people are!"

Ralts shook his head. _That's where you are wrong. You've already encountered Beyond- their Pokemon call themselves the Dark Gang. And as for stopping them, I shall help you. This 'cloud' you feel is your Aura, all tangled into a furious storm. I can help you organize this tangle, if you're willing to try._

I thought about it for a moment. There was no way this could be real. We've been trying to escape the Dark Gang, and now Ralts wants me to stop them? There's no way I'd be able to do anything about it!

But then, I thought about Isabel, and Rose, and Penny, and Liekkau, too. I thought about what would happen to them if these evil whitecoats succeeded. I couldn't let that happen. Even if it was impossible, I still had a chance. I had to try.

"Alright. Where do we begin?"

--

Ralts promised we'd have our first training session later in the day, so we decided to save what precious little we had left of our lead. Heading deeper into the mountains, the trail began to disappear, so the white noise of the water was the only source of direction we had to go by. Still, we pressed on, hoping to cross the region's midway by nightfall.

Just as our luck would have it, we finally reached the river a few hours later.

"So how are we going to cross it?" Liekkau asked, leaning over the ledge. The mountains suddenly dropped off about a hundred feet to the river below. A fall from this height would definitely be fatal; even you managed to avoid the rock shelf at the bottom. The opposite cliff was about thirty feet away, so jumping across was not an option.

"There's supposed to be a bridge around here somewhere," replied Penny, yawning and stretching her tired legs. We were all ready for a break after walking for so long. "Let's take a break then go look for it. If we follow the river, we'll find it eventually."

"Sounds good to me," I said, sitting down beside her. Ralts tapped me on the shoulder, pointing off to a spot behind him.

_Come. We shall begin our lessons._ I looked at Liekkau and Penny, who were now both relaxing in the warm midday sun, then turned to follow Ralts.

Upon reaching the clearing, Ralts turned to me and sat down. At his gesture, I did the same.

_First, you must learn to organize this tangle of Aura you posses. I want you to listen and follow my instructions. Understood? _I nodded, taking a deep breath. I didn't know what we were going to do, so I prepared myself for anything. Ralts stood up, walking over to me and placing a hand on my forehead. _Close your eyes and relax. That is the first step._

I shut my eyes and took another deep breath, waiting for something to happen. After a few moments, I impatiently opened an eye, scanning to see what was going on. Ralts smacked me on the head.

_I said, 'Relax'! Let me help you. . .now, close your eyes._ I closed my eyes again, beginning to become aggravated with all the waiting. _Now, just empty your mind of all thoughts, all concerns._

"Clear my mind?" I asked skeptically.

_Yes. It is important before we begin that your mind is blank. _I sighed and closed my eyes tighter, trying to push out all thoughts and distractions. I imagined a blank white image, trying to release all my thoughts. The harder I tried, though, the more things like the rushing water or the chirping Starly became distracting. Ralts smacked my head again.

"Ow!"

_Alright, it's not that difficult! Ignore these distractions. If it helps, concentrate on your breathing. _Again I sighed, pushing away the noises of the things around me. I concentrated my thoughts on my own deep breathing. Inhale. . .exhale. . .inhale. . .exhale. . . in, then out, then in, then out once more. It wasn't helping at all. The river seemed to be louder, as if I were standing directly in it. I sighed, taking another deep breath, this time realizing that I had inhaled to the same rhythm of the water crashing and receding against the rocky shelf. I tried it again. Inhale. . .exhale. . .crash. . .recede. . . . It didn't take me long to get the hang of it.

_There you go. Now was that so hard? _I suddenly realized that I had my full concentration on that little task. I made a mental note for the future. _Now, you say that you are able to 'reach inside yourself', correct?_

"Mm-hmm," I muttered, still breathing in time with the waves down below.

_Do that now. Feel that Aura within yourself, but don't do anything yet. Just locate it._

Same old story for me. I reached down deep, and I was surprised that I found it very easily. In fact, I could literally _see_ it inside my head. It looked exactly what I pictured it as; a chaotic ball of swirling black.

_Can you picture it clearly inside your mind? _Ralts' thoughts were beginning to grow distant. I nodded. _Now, take a single strand of this Aura and imagine rolling it up, like one would do with a spool of thread._

As odd as it sounded, I tried it. Reaching out with my mind, I plucked at the black mass, finding that it truly was just a big tangle of Aura strands. Taking a single strand, I began to wrap it into a tight ball like Ralts described. When I was finished, Ralts removed his hand from my head. Instantly, the vision of my Aura disappeared from my mind.

"That was. . .odd." I mumbled, feeling a bit lightheaded again. Ralts nodded.

_I assume it would be. What this process will do is help you bring your Aura under control so you can command it easier. It will not always be as easy as it just was, because I was helping you and I will not always be here. I expect you to at least try this meditation process once a day, for at least an hour. In no time, your Aura will be easier to manage._

"So. . .what can I do with my Aura? How can I use it to stop the Dark Gang?" I asked, curious and a bit more than a tad impatient. Ralts gave a little chuckle.

_Patience. All will be revealed to you in time. For now, just do your meditation. It really helps to calm you, and can even get you out of a sticky situation._

"But, I-" I began, but Ralts cut me off.

_Do not be in a rush to find your destiny. Enjoy what you have now. You will fight back when the time is right. _Ralts began to walk back to Liekkau and Penny. I thought about his words for a moment, then followed him.

--

"You've _got_ to be kidding me!" Penny exclaimed, and with good reason, too. With renewed vigor, we'd began walking, following the river. The good news is we found the bridge before long. The bad news, though. . . .

"The bridge is _out_?!" Penny exclaimed again in disbelief, pacing back and forth in front of the now-ruined bridge. It appeared that the rope had been cut from the support struts on the opposite side of the river.

"Is there another bridge somewhere?" I asked her. If anyone would know, I felt it would be her. To my dismay, Penny shook her head.

"No, not that I can think of." She tapped her forehead with her paw. "Ooh, how do the humans cross the river? Dammit!"

_If I may?_ Ralts chimed in. _No human has used this bridge in a very long time, meaning they have an alternate route across the river._ He paused.

". . .Well? Do you know this route?" I asked him impatiently.

_Clearwater Town. Further to the west the mountain descends, becoming level with the river. There, the humans have built a town suspended over it._

"Well? What are we waiting for?" We only had a few hours until the sunset. If we hurried, we may still have been able to cross the river before it got dark.

So once again, off we went. At times I wondered in amazement how relatively quick destinations could be reached. We traveled between cities in mere hours, covering a lot of ground in a short amount of time. Ralts explained that this was because cities and landmarks were not a long ways apart on this side of the region. We lived in the far eastern part of the region; besides the mountains, there were very few physical landmarks to make travel harder. Out west, the expanses were greater and the cities were scarcer.

So it was no surprise that we began seeing the tip of the city on the horizon as the sky began turning orange. We decided to take a short break before the final stretch of the night.

"It looks to be about another hour before we reach the town," Liekkau grinned. "We'll make it! We'll really make it across the river!"

I smiled, finally feeling able to relax. "Yeah, after we pass through Clearwater, escaping from the Dark Gang will be much easier." _At least for now,_ I thought. I would have to face them one day. _But for now, we just need to get away._

"So," Penny sighed, turning to Ralts. "What's this Clearwater place like?"

"Clearwater?" The sudden voice made us all jump. I turned, ready at a moments' notice to fight off our foe. I clamed, though, when I saw what it was.

It was a small light brown Pokemon. It had big, round ears and a cute round tail. The crescent moon on its forehead glowed faintly as it looked up at us with big, round eyes.

It sucked on a paw, only parting it from its mouth to talk.

"I wouldn't go there if I were you," the Teddiursa warned. "There've been some bad things happening lately."

"What. . .what sort of things?" Penny asked cautiously. We weren't sure of the bear Pokemon's intentions, whether good or bad, but it looked harmless enough.

The bear shook its head. "I'm not entirely sure. There are rumors of Pokemon disappearing lately, so the ownerless Pokemon from the town are leaving." It returned its paw to its mouth for a moment, then continued, "I don't see what good it will do, though. There's also talk of a wild Seviper running rampant. It's dangerous no matter which way you go."

"I see." I said numbly. Could this stranger be telling the truth? If so, was it worth the risk? I guess compared to the Dark Gang, I would risk disappearing. Besides, we'd only be passing through. "I think we'll take our chances. Thank you for the warning, though."

The Teddiursa nodded, smiling. "No problem. Good luck." The bear nodded again, walking past us and continuing on down the road.

I turned back around. Liekkau looked a bit nervous; even Penny looked unsure. Only Ralts looked unfazed by the ominous warning.

_So, shall we go?_

--

To call Clearwater Town unique would be an extreme understatement. The very foundation the town was built upon was incredible. The town was built on a bridgelike steel support structure suspended above the water. Buildings lined up on either side of the main road leading straight across. The center of the bridge opened up to a large square- a park- with buildings lined in rows around it. The whole town ran on hydroelectric power, provided by the Clearspring River below. All in all, it was an amazing architectural masterpiece.

"We're almost there, guys," I said, trying to encourage a little enthusiasm, but to no avail. Liekkau's eyes darted about nervously, Penny just walked on in silence, staring at the ground, and Ralts, as usual, was expressionless. I've seen cheerier Pokemon at a funeral.

I sighed. I felt responsible for our little group; I should be the one to keep our spirits lifted. I opened my mouth to say something, but I was interrupted by a loud _BONG!_ coming from the clocktower in the center of the park. The clock struck 8 times, signaling 8 o'clock. Time was running low; we had to hurry.

"Come on, let's-" I was interrupted again, this time by a violent shaking of the ground. "What was that?" A loud grating sound from behind made me look; it took me a moment to realize what a grave mistake we made.

The town's support structure was connected to the mainland by a drawbridge. These retractable bridges were often laid flat, but could be pulled up to deny access. I didn't expect the town would have a security measure like that; the depth of the situation suddenly dawned on me.

"Oh, dammit. We have to move, now!" I took off at a run, leaving the others confused behind me. I crossed the town as quickly as I could, but I arrived at the opposite side too late. The drawbridge was fully drawn. We were stuck for the night.

In a town of disappearances.

--

It was dark. Eerily dark. And damp. The Linoone tried painfully to stand up, but found his muscles unable to respond. He would have to settle for lying on the cold stone floor.

Why was he here? What had he done to deserve this? The Linoone had pondered over these questions for a long time. to think just the day before he had been playing happily with his owner, not a care in the world.

His owner. The Linoone longed to be home, to be back with his boy. Attempting to stifle his miserable sobs, the ferret Pokemon tried to sleep.


	9. The Collector

**A/N: I have **_**the**_** absolute worst case of writer's block. Ever. The ideas that once flowed so easily are rare and hard to come by. So, I hope you'll all forgive me when I say I may be taking a break from writing. **

**Unless my fans want me to continue. In that case, I'll do my best, but it may take a while for chapters to come out.**

_All alone in the dark,_

_On my head was placed the mark._

_In a neverending, disastrous arc,_

_I am your shield, I'll protect you._

"Damn, damn, a _thousand_ times DAMMIT!" Penny shouted, pacing in front of the drawn-in bridge. "What are we going to do now?"

The bridge had drawn. This was a horrible twist of fate; not only did it give the Dark Gang ample time to catch up with us, but we were trapped in a city where Pokemon disappeared. No good could come from this, I could already tell.

"Maybe we could find somewhere safe to stay for the night?" Liekkau suggested. "And we can leave as soon as we get up tomorrow."

"Probably the best thing to do, given the situation," I muttered. It was my fault. Simple as that. I had inexplicably put everyone else in danger by coming here. I looked at Ralts. "How about it?"

_As good an idea as any._ He shrugged.

"Alright," I said, stepping forward, "Let's go."

It was already dark out, so finding somewhere decent to stay was difficult. For some reason, even with the numerous streetlights on, many alleyways and crevices of the city were pitch black, giving an ominous feel of insecurity. We eventually settled on staying in a small park beneath a bridge. It was partially enclosed, so we'd all be warm, at the expense of personal space. No one was complaining, though.

"Alright, get as much sleep as you can," I reminded no one in particular. "Tomorrow we'll-" I stopped. I thought I saw a movement outside, a flash of black fur. In fact, I had seen the same flash the whole time we probed the city for shelter.

"Shadow?" Liekkau asked, looking at me worriedly. "What's wrong?"

I shook my head. "It's nothing. I just thought I. . ." There it was again, I was sure of it. Someone, or something, was following us. I glanced at Ralts. He nodded, having noticed it too. He must've felt the intruder's presence.

_Don't look now,_ He thought so the stranger wouldn't hear. _But we're about to have a fight. Get ready in three. . . two. . . one. . ._

"NOW!" I shouted. The four of us dashed outside, searching frantically for the unwelcome guest. But there was nothing there.

"Shadow?" Penny asked warily, scanning the park. There was no sign of the mysterious stalker.

"Weird," I murmured, "I could have sworn-" I was cut short by a loud _FWUMP!_ that sent me tumbling onto my back. A pair of glaring red eyes hovered above my head, vicious fangs only inches from my neck.

"A slippery fish, aren't you?" The voice was so hoarse he sounded like he was growling at me. The teeth twisted themselves into a sinister grin. "But we've found you."

"You!" Penny shouted. I craned my neck to get a look at her. She was not ten paces away, gaping at my attacker. "What are you doing here, Mightyena?"

The mouth grinned once again, stepping back. I realized I had been holding my breath and let out a loud sigh of relief. I could now clearly see the Pokemon; tall, built like a canine with shaggy black and grey fur. His gleaming silver fangs were twisted into a wicked grin. "Well, well, well. Long time, no see. . . Penumbra."

I gaped at Penny. "P-penny? You know this guy?"

"Hah! Know me?" Mightyena cackled, grinning that vicious grin. He moved down to eye level with me, staring me right in the eye. "We're old lovers."

"We were nothing of the sort!" Penny insisted, but the obvious redness in her cheeks said otherwise. She glanced at me then turned away, flustered.

Mightyena frowned in mock pain, placing a paw on his chest. "Ooh, that cuts _deep_,Penumbra! That's no way to treat friends" He looked at me, face all seriousness, then back at Penny. "Come back to us, Penumbra! You can do better than _this_!"

Penny growled at the dog Pokemon. "You're no friend of mine, _Apara_."

I looked around. I could tell this was going to turn ugly. I noticed Liekkau was gaping at Penny. I clambered to my feet and scooted closer to her, away from the other two dark Pokemon.

"What's that look for?" I murmured to Liekkau. She just shook her head.

"They're speaking. . . the language of the Astar," Liekkau muttered back, not taking her eyes off the two opponents. "The village where I'm from. . ."

Mightyena chuckled. "Te olette lahteneet niin pitkaan, kissanpentu."

Penny shook her head, glaring at the dog. "Jata tama paikka. Sinulla ei ole liiketoimintaa."

"Oma yritys on teita, kissanpentu. Tule takaisin Beyond, emme unohda sinua." The two were pacing in a slow circle, not taking their eyes off each other. I shook my head, realizing I had gotten lost in the husky accent of the Astari language. I leaned towards Liekkau again, also completely mesmerised by the strange, entrancing language.

"What are they saying?" I asked. Liekkau shook her head.

"Mightyena is saying something about 'coming back', but Penny's refusing." Liekkau murmured, just as hypnotized as I was. _Coming back? How does Penny know this guy? Or, how do the two even know Liekkau's language in the first place?_ No, questions could wait. What was important now was to get the rest of the group away from this enemy. I glanced off to my left and noticed Ralts there expressionless, watching the two dark Pokemon face off.

_Ralts, _I called out to the psychic Pokemon. He turned his head.

_What is it?_

_I'm going to distract Mightyena, _I thought. _When I do, I need you to bring Liekkau and Penny somewhere safe. We'll meet up here in a few hours._

There was a pause. _Alright, but don't get yourself killed._

_Oh, and Ralts? If I don't show up by tomorrow morning, continue on without me._

Ralts shook his head. _Don't speak like that, you fool._

Reassured, I turned back towards Mightyena. He and Penny had stopped speaking and were just glaring daggers at each other. I would need to make a move, and fast, before one of them got violent.

"Hey, dog!" I shouted, launching myself at Mightyena. I must have caught him unawares, because I ran full-on into him, sending us both toppling over. I ended up smashing my head against the side of the bridge, a bright flash going off in my head and making me dizzy. I noticed Ralts leading Liekkau away from the bridge. _Good. . . oh, wait. . ._

"You lousy little-" Mightyena was struggling to his feet, his gaze like ice. "You impudent little. . . _bastard_." He was panting heavily, whether it was from the heat of the moment or out of anger, I couldn't tell. I had more important matters, though. _Where did Penny go? She should be with Ralts! _

I looked back again to double check, but Ralts was leading away Liekkau and no one else. I began to worry, panic rising in my chest. I turned back; Mightyena was heading towards me, his long claws beginning to glow black. He growled and raised his paw to slash me, but was interrupted by a dark blast from behind.

"Take _that_, you son of a bitch!" Penny shouted victoriously, landing a kick in the dog's side. Mightyena grunted and rolled over, glaring at the two of us.

"Time to go," I nodded at Penny, who frowned and planted one last kick on Mightyena before running off after me. We ran across the park and ducked into the sidestreets of the city, hoping frantically to dodge the furious dog Pokemon. Penny gave me a look. "I told Ralts to me us back there in a few hours," I explained. Penny nodded and we continued our flight in silence.

We stopped after running until our legs were sore and we were short on breath, but we still didn't feel safe. Fortunately, tucked away in an alleyway, Mightyena would have a hard time finding us for now. Penny sighed in relief, plopping down against a building. Suddenly, she chuckled. "Showed that idiot," she grinned.

"How do you know him, by the way?" Penny's laughter stopped abruptly, turning into a flustered look.

"Well, er. . ." she mumbled, eyes darting around nervously, "There's nothing to it, really. Just someone whose path I've crossed once before."

"You both spoke Astari," I pointed out crossly, "And Mightyena said something about 'coming back'."

"Oh, right."

"Plus, he said you were old lov-"

"That part isn't true!" Penny shouted, her face betraying her once again. I raised an eyebrow. ". . . well, it's not!"

"What does 'kissanpentu' mean?" I asked sourly. Penny blushed.

". . . Kitten," she mumbled, looking away. "It's still not true. . ."

"Mhm." I sighed, getting up to make sure we were still alone. "Okay, we should probably get going again, just in case." There was no reply. "Penny? Penny, what do you think?" I glanced back; Penny was frozen stiff, eyes open wide in shock. "Penny?"

I realized what she was gawking at. A tall man was standing over her, a wide grin plastered over his face. The man wore dark clothes and a wide-brimmed hat covered most of his face. He carried two burlap sacks over his shoulder. By Penny's look, I could tell this man was probably not friendly.

"Oh, yes. . ." The man mumbled, his heavy voice sending chills down my spine, "You'll do nicely." In one swift motion, he swung a sack down and scooped Penny up in it, tying off the top and tossing it of to the side. He turned to me, readying the other sack. I turned to run, but the bag was thrown over my body and I was flipped around. I felt a sickening crash before I lost consciousness.

It was dark when I awoke. My body ached all over. I tried to stand up but found my legs were tethered to cold stone walls by a short cord. Penny was lying unconscious beside me, her own legs bound by a thick rope. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw my surroundings more clearly; it was a small room, like a cellar, with stone walls and floors and a rickety set of stairs in the corner. A small, pathetic rag was bundled up in the corner, near an iron spike driven into the floor. The entire room was damp and stunk of mildew and less pleasant things. It was clear what had happened.

This is what happened to the Pokemon that disappeared. They were Pokenapped.

"Uhhh. . ." Penny moaned near me, her eyes flickering uneasily. She glanced up at me, still a bit dizzy. "Shadow? What's going on?"

"I don't know," I replied honestly. "We disappeared." Penny gave me a look for a moment, then it must've clicked.

"This is where they were? They were captured?" She looked around, then asked the same question I had been wondering. "So. . . where are the rest of them?"

"Gone," A voice croaked. "All gone." The pile I had mistaken for a rag looked at us and shook its head dejectedly. "And we'll be next. . . there's nothing we can do." As if in one final act of defeat, the pile sighed and plopped its head down onto the stone floor. I squinted, trying to get a better look at this new Pokemon. All I could really make out in the dark was a bundle of filth and thinning, matted fur. I couldn't judge much more of the creature's size, except that it was somewhat long and looked unhealthily thin.

"Where did they go?" I ventured. For a long moment, the creature didn't answer.

"Who knows? He brings them upstairs, and they never come back." The Pokemon groaned helplessly, rolling over and shifting its feet. I saw that it was chained to the iron spike in the ground.

"What man?" Penny asked, having shaken of the dizziness. "What's going on here?"

"The collector," said the creature. "That's what they called him. I asked all the same questions when I got here." It coughed and shuddered, then continued. "Never got the answer." How many Pokemon had this 'collector' forced through this? The creature sounded so weary, so forlorn. As if it had completely given up hope.

"What's your name? Who are you?" I asked, hoping to at least learn something about this fellow cellmate. Who knew, it could've provided helpful info. We waited for a long time before we finally got an answer.

"I cannot remember." The creature sighed. "I am a Linoone, though." I opened my mouth to reply but was halted by a soft chuckle. "You may hold your introductions. It is more than enough just to see to creatures of the dark."

"Nice to meet you, Linoone," Penny said, shifting uncomfortably.

"I just hope you're not afraid of the dark," I remarked, shuffling in an attempt to get close to Penny. Perhaps if I got close enough, I could chew through the rope. . .

A sudden bark startled me. No, it was a laugh. "Oh, believe me, the dark is the last thing I have to fear," Linoone said. Then, as if on cue, a door at the top of the stairs opened up, flooding the cellar with a bright light. I could now see everything clearly; the room was smaller than I expected but just as damp, and I could easily see how emaciated the Linoone was. "Speak of the devil."

A heavy footstep clomped down the rickety stairs. Each creak brought on a new anxieties; who was this man? Why did he take us? What did he plan on doing to us? There was no time to dwell on these inquiries, as soon a foot appeared on the steps, then the torso, then finally our snatcher's face, twisted into a wicked grin.

"Rise and shine, my trophies," he chuckled. "You've got the devil's luck. . . it's time you been marked."

**A/N: Ugh, sorry about the length. Writers' block, y'know? I'll try to write more next time (considering there _is_ a next time. I'm afraid people may be losing interest in this story)**


	10. Together

A/N: And just like that, my writer's block is gone

**A/N: And just like that, my writer's block is gone. It actually came as I was sleeping; this awesome continuation of the storyline! I had never planned or even thought that I could make this particular story very deep, but I think I potentially can. We'll just have to see.**

**And I only wondered if my story was losing interest because I had been getting less and less correspondence. But you guys proved me wrong! Wow! Thanks for all your kind words! I would love it if I got this many reviews for every chapter :)**

_A villain's evil, twisted game,_

_Left me naught but guilt and shame._

_I couldn't stand taking all the blame,_

_But I made a promise; I mean to keep it._

When I was young, my mother always told me that everything had a reason for happening, that if we trusted fate's design, everything would work out. I couldn't help but think of these words and wonder if they were true as I was faced with a true monster.

"Heh heh heh. . ." The Collector chuckled, stepping down the remaining steps and stopping in front of us. He swayed heavily, swinging a long length of rope in one hand. The other was hidden behind his back. "Gotta have the Collector's mark, don't ya?" He chuckled again, pulling out a long iron rod from behind his back, its red-hot tip shaped into a curvy letter 'C'.

I growled at the Collector, stepping protectively in front of Penny. "Stay behind me," I told her. "I'll protect you."

"Shadow. . ."

The Collector snorted, swinging the branding rod in front of him. "Wanna go first, li'l guy? Hah, if you insist. . ." He grabbed me roughly be the scruff of the neck and hoisted me up to eye level. "I was sorta hoping _you_ would at least put up a fight." He grunted and turned the tip of the hot metal towards me, hovering not inches away. I closed my eyes tight in anticipation.

The Collector jabbed the side of my shoulder, singeing the fur and burning away at the skin. I gasped in pain, immediately trying to worm out of the Collector's grasp. I could feel the searing heat as he dug it harder against my leg, the smell of burning flesh filling my nostrils. After what felt like an eternity he pulled the rod away and dropped me to the floor. I gasped with relief and glanced at my soldering shoulder, the letter 'C' now clearly burned in. An attempt at standing brought a sharp pain to my leg, so I conceded to stay on the cold stone.

"Shadow!" Penny shouted, trying to come to my aid. She was still tied up, so she was unable to move from where she was standing.

"You're next," the Collector growled at her. Penny squeaked and attempted to scoot away from the advancing man, but he rested a foot on her side and raised the rod high. Without thinking I bounded up and shoved Penny out of the way with my head, taking a blow to the back from the rod.

I cried out in pain once again at the feeling of the hot iron, rolling onto my back as soon as the Collector pulled the branding iron away.

"Bah!" The Collector shouted, kicking me aside with the heel of his boot. "Git outta the way! You've already gotten yours!" He stamped over to Penny again, lifting the iron. Once again, I found the strength to lift myself to my feet and jumped in front of Penny, wincing as the iron was brought down again beneath my ribs. The Collector growled and lifted me up by the scruff of my neck, bringing me up to eye level.

"You've got yerself a nasty habit there," he growled, tossing me aside. I hit the wall with a _THUMP!_ and slid to the floor in a heap. I blinked dazedly, trying to keep focused. I tried to make my legs respond, but I couldn't maintain focus. As my consciousness faded in and out, the last thing I heard was Penny's shriek, letting me know that I had failed her.

I blacked out.

--

I came to several hours later. Or, at least what I assumed to be several hours later. It was hard to tell when there were no windows down here. I couldn't even tell if it was day or night.

I gasped. I couldn't even tell how long we've been here! How long have we been missing? What happened to Ralts and Liekkau? The thought of them still out there, waiting, brought new strength to my resolve.

"Oh, you're awake!" It was Penny. She was watching me from her corner worriedly. "Are you alright? That sounded like it hurt. . ." I nodded and stood up, feeling my back crack from the effort.

"Yeah, I'm alright." Penny nodded; I noticed a small patch of fur was missing one of her hind legs. I frowned and took a closer look; the skin in the spot was red and swollen, but clearly showed and imprint of the letter 'C'. "Penny. . . he got you."

Penny's ears perked up in confusion, then she followed my line of sight. "Oh, right." She frowned, turning to me. "I'm not worried about that, I'm worried about _you_. Are you alright?"

I looked down at myself and saw three similar markings; on my leg, back, and beneath my ribs. "I'm fine. I just wish I could've prevented him from branding you." I sighed, hanging my head in defeat. "I'm so sorry, I failed."

Penny cocked her head. "Failed? Shadow, you really didn't have to do that. . . all you did was get yourself hurt."

I shrugged. "I know I didn't have to. But, you remember our promise. There was no way I was going to let him hurt you without a fight."

"Promise?" Penny asked hesitantly. I nodded.

"Yeah, remember at the waterfall?" I asked, it being my turn to cock my head. "We promised we'd stick together forever." Penny looked confused for a moment, then nodded.

"Ah. That promise."

"What's the matter?" I asked, suddenly concerned. She sounded. . . hesitant for some reason.

"Well. . ." Penny shrugged, shaking her head. "When you said 'together forever', I didn't think you'd mean _forever_." She grinned sheepishly and turned away, leaving me to my thoughts.

"But. . . wh-what do you mean?" I asked, inquiring further. Penny didn't answer at first; I nudged her shoulder. "Then why did you make the promise?"

Penny sighed, turning to face me again. "Don't get me wrong, Shadow, it's been great traveling with you, just. . ." She shrugged again. "It wasn't going to last. We'd have to part ways eventually."

"Part ways?" I asked, alarmed. "B-but why? We're safer as a group!"

"But that's just it, Shadow," she said, sighing once more. The exasperation was beginning to show on her face; I realized I probably wasn't helping this already stressful situation. But I had to know! "We _aren't_ safer together. They're more likely to come after us as a group, and it's not like I'm any better off with Beyond's most wanted!"

"Penny. . ."

"If anything I was better off before I even met you!" Penny watched me for a moment, before huffing and turning the other way. I just watched her turn away, completely dumbstruck.

"Penny. . ." I whispered, scooching closer to her. "Surely you don't mean that?"

Penny looked over her shoulder at me for a moment, then sighed. "No, no I don't." I smiled in relief, but noticed Penny's stern gaze trained on me. "But you have to realize that we will have to separate eventually. That is what would be safest."

I nodded. "Yeah, I guess. . ." It made sense, of course. Penny probably wouldn't be in this situation if it weren't for me. It was my turn to sigh; I always assumed that Penny would be around forever. I guess it was sort of selfish on my part.

"Hey, cheer up," she said, nudging me with her nose. "We can still enjoy the time while we're still together, right?" She smiled at me, encouraging me to do the same.

"Yeah, I suppose we can." Penny nodded, satisfied, and sat back against the wall.

"Sure has been quiet." Penny nodded at the Linoone in the corner. "Think he's died?" I shrugged. Now that she mentioned it, I hadn't heard a word from the creature in a while. I was about to give him an experimental nudge when his head popped up, blinking sleepily.

"Bah, I wish," the ragged creature croaked. "Giving you two your moment." Linoone shrugged and lay back down on the floor.

"So, Linoone. . ." I started, hoping to get to know our fellow prisoner a bit better. "Where are you from?" Linoone cracked open one annoyed eye at me, sizing me up for a moment, before he sat up on his front legs.

"Here," he said simply. "Lived in Clearwater my whole life." He grimaced, shaking his head sadly. "I was playing with my trainer when I was captured."

"You had a trainer?" Penny asked, taking the words right out of my mouth. Linoone nodded.

"Yes, a young boy." Linoone closed his eye in concentration. "We were playing in the park that day. I'm not sure how long ago that was. Hard to tell down here." Linoone opened his eyes again, fixing haze gaze on me. "Leo."

I blinked. "What?"

"That's what he called me. My trainer," Linoone explained. "Leo was his name for me."

"You said something about there being. . . others, Leo?" I asked hesitantly. Leo was silent for a lone moment, before he rested his head back down on his front paws.

"I'm tired, boy," he mumbled. "There were others, yes, but they're all gone now. Never came back."

"Do you know what happened?" Penny asked, leaning closer to Leo.

"Nope," he said without opening his eyes. "But I doubt we'll fare any better. No one will find us here."

"But, you've just gotta hope that _someone_ will find us," I said. "I mean, these disappearances are becoming more known. As long as we have faith-"

"Hah!" Leo chuckled. "You talk about faith, about hope. Let me tell you something, boy." Linoone turned to me, one eye staring me down. "All hope was abandoned down here a long time ago. No one will ever realize where he's keeping us, and that's fact."

"But-"

Leo huffed. "Save it. You keep your faith, and I'll keep my realism." He snorted, rolling over onto his side. "We'll see who comes out on top." 

--

"D-do you think they're okay?" Liekkau asked hesitantly. She turned to Ralts, seated next to her beneath the bridge in the park. Shadow and Penny hadn't shown up at the allotted time. In fact, they've been missing for over a day. "They aren't. . . dead, are they?"

_Don't speak such nonsense!_ Ralts snapped. _I can feel them. Faintly, but they're here. In the city._

"Oh." Liekkau shifted her weight uncomfortably, looking back up at the sky. "I wonder what's taking so long."

_Probably waiting for an opportune moment to come out of hiding. I don't know how long or far they were pursued by Mightyena._

"So we'll wait here for them?"

_Correct._

Liekkau shifted her weight again, looking nervously at her companion. "How long will it take?"

Ralts shrugged. _Who knows? But we can't just leave without them, so we'll wait, just the three of us._

"Right." Liekkau nodded, then slowly turned to Ralts.

"Wait. . . what do you mean, 'the three of us'?"

--

Time had no meaning down here. Seconds melted into minutes, which melted into hours, which melted into, it seemed, days. I could only guess how long we had been trapped by how many times the Collector brought us food, considering he kept a regular schedule. We ate when we could, and accepted sleep when it came. But with no windows, there was no way of knowing the world outside these walls.

Even still, I kept up my meditation regimen. I practiced every time I found I found the desire to, and I found that it helped to clear my head and to think about my situation calmly. I didn't have the sound of the river to focus on, but other white noise such as Leo or Penny's breathing offered a decent substitute.

The dark entanglement of my aura was slowly, but surely, beginning to unravel and become neat. And I could definitely notice a change each time I delved into my subconscious. I couldn't tell how, but I almost felt the power growing and maturing.

_Breathe in. . . breathe out. . ._ _control my aura, understand my powers._

". . ."

_Wait, singing?_

I opened my eyes, adjusting quickly to the dim light. Leo was in the corner, as usual, and Penny was leaning against the wall. . . singing. She had a beautiful voice; a singing voice most befitting her.

"_You are my sunshine, my lovely sunshine. . ._" I recognized the song almost instantly. My mother used to sing it to Rose and I when we were young. Whenever one of us was sad or lonely, she would always know the perfect way to cheer us up, even up 'til the ay she left.

"_You make me happy when skies are gray. . ._" I interjected, recalling the words from the deepest recesses of my childhood memories. Penny gave me a look, grinning slightly.

"_You'll never know dear, how much I love you. . ._"

"_Please don't take my sunshine away._" We both finished the song with big smiles on our faces. I chuckled, sighing. One of the few great moments of my childhood, and now i got to share it here with Penny. It was amazing.

Penny smiled, and then nodded began to sing once more, "_Where are you sunshine, my only sunshine?_

_You bring color to fields of gray. . ._

_Where have you gone now? You know I need you. . ._

_Please don't take my sunshine away."_ I smiled at her.

"Never heard that version before," I mused. Penny laughed.

"It's pretty location-specific," she giggled. "I made it up."

"Wow, that's pretty good," I said, nodding. "Of course, it doesn't make the moment any less dark." I pointed out.

Penny shrugged. "I suppose." We sat there in silence for a while, before something bothered me.

"Penny, I. . . I really need to know something."

Penny turned to me. "Oh, um. . . alright. What is it?"

I took a deep breath, trying to build up the courage. "Penny, what do you feel about me? Really?"

Penny sighed. "Shadow. . ."

I shook my head. "No, I need to know. Penny, I'm sure you already know, but I really like you. And. . . I need to know if you feel the same."

Penny looked at me, straight into my eyes. She watched me for a long moment, before turning away. "I. . . I can't really say."

"What do you mean?"

"It's complicated, Shadow." Penny shook her head. "Don't get me wrong, you've been great and all, just. . ." She trailed off, leaving me to fill in the blanks.

"I see. . ." I said dejectedly. I guess I was foolish to think Penny would love me. I sighed.

"Hey, cheer up. . ." Penny scooted closer to me, resting her head on my shoulder. "The future is uncertain, Shadow. You never know what may happen as soon as we're beyond these walls."

"Yeah. . ." I agreed, nodding. "Yeah, you're right. Maybe someday, huh?'

Penny shrugged. "Sure, why not?" I smiled at her. She was so wonderful; I thought my feelings for her were great before, but they paled in comparison with how I felt about her now. My resolve was absolute: Penny held a special place in my heart. And I wasn't going to let any crummy Collector get in the way of that.

"So let's get out of here," I said, grinning at her. "Together."

Penny nodded. "Yes. Together."


	11. Freedom, finally

A/N:

**A/N: So, I've recently remembered my original reason for writing this fic. I wanted to provide my readers a unique experience that retains my style of writing without conforming to clichés. Now, I'm pretty sure that I've failed so far to do the latter part.**

**Oh, well. Tell me if you think otherwise. In any case, I'm going to try to stray away from the status quo a little bit so as to keep it from becoming your average guy-meets-girl story. Not in a bad way, hopefully.**

**That said, a warning for the future: I will end up making decisions in the storyline later that, well, you readers may not necessarily agree with. Just know that I will go in the direction you will least expect, and that everything (in all my stories), has a purpose. It'll work out, I promise**

**Now, what you've all come here for:**

_In that place we hatched a plan;_

_While we were free, we only ran._

_We deal with life any way we can,_

_But it will only last so long._

"C'mon, tell me."

"Nope."

"You know you want to. . ."

"No, I _don't_."

"Oh, be reasonable!"

"I _told_ you _no_!"

"Oh, it's not like you have anything better to do!"

Penny turned, glaring at me. "Well there are a million different things you could be asking me!" She turned back, muttering grumpily. "I liked it better when you wanted to know if I love you."

"Compared to that, this should be nothing!" I shot back, not expecting a response. As the hours or days or whatever progressed, tensions rose considerably, the situation not being helped by the question I inexorably shoved on her. Now we were reduced to arguing like spoiled children.

"Hah!" Penny laughed sardonically, "You have _no_ idea."

"Oh, what do you have to lose?" I demanded. I'd never seen someone go to such lengths to dodge answering a question. This either meant she was being very stubborn, or she didn't want me to know.

"Pff," Penny scoffed. "I don't go around asking about _your_ past! You couldn't even compare!"

"Is that it?" I asked her, my last straw broken. "Okay, here it is: I was from a bastard litter of some Dark Gang jackass, three of my siblings died shortly after birth, my mother almost killed herself out of depression, then she almost dies _anyway_ from some damn poison, and after she recovered from _that_, she up and disappears with her mate!" I realized I was practically shouting now, my chest was heaving in anger. "Happy now?"

Penny blinked, obviously not expecting my outburst. She watched me, then looked down at the floor. "No, not really."

I growled in frustration. "What will it take? What's so horrible about your past that you can't tell me?" Penny didn't look up. "I thought we could trust each other, traveling all this time."

"I guess not," She muttered quietly.

I felt my paw twitch. I felt the urge to smack her. But I resisted. Instead, I just growled again, lying down and resting my head on my outstretched forelegs. "We're just gonna die here anyways." I muttered.

"Agreed." It was Leo who spoke up that time. As was expected.

--

I took up meditating more often. Whatever allowed me to escape the sullen awkwardness of that dark cellar was a welcome escape to me. And as I spent more and more time controlling my Aura, the more I became. . . well, aware. Each time I would open my eyes and the darkness would look marginally less dark. Of course, it was still never enough to make a difference. But it was noticeable.

"No, it's not him, just. . ." I cracked an eye open. The sudden voices broke me from my trance. Any noise, no matter how hushed, seemed amplified in my meditative state. As my eyes adjusted, I saw that Penny was in the corner talking to Leo. It was she who had spoken.

"No need to explain, I understand," Leo murmured, looking back at me. I quickly shut my eyes again, hoping he hadn't noticed. If he did notice, he didn't get a chance to say anything because Penny sighed.

"It's just. . . he has so much hate. I'm afraid that he may find out; I mean, who knows what he would do?" She shook her head.

"But you don't have any connections to the Gang now, right?" Leo queried. My ears perked up the tiniest bit. Where was this conversation going?

Penny didn't look up, apparently very interested with her feet. "No, not anymore. But still. . . he doesn't need to know."

"Know what?" I asked, sitting up. Penny gasped and fumbled backwards, practically tripping over her own tail.

"Sh-Shadow!" She looked surprised, her eyes wide, but quickly recovered. "Were you eavesdropping!?" Oh, that's how she was going to play? Talk about me behind my back and make me seem like the bad guy?

"Hey, why were you talking about me?" I demanded, glaring right back at her.

"That's none of your business!" She shouted, getting flustered. She turned to Leo and smiled sweetly at him. "Thank you for that discussion, Leo." She glared at me once more then slumped down onto the ground, facing away from me.

Leo glanced at me out of the corner of his eye; I shot him a look that said 'What are you looking at?'. He shrugged and went back to his resting position, leaving me to stew in my thoughts. What were they being so dodgy about? It had something to do with the Dark Gang, I was sure of it; what could Penny be hiding?

Giving up, I lay down again, squeezing my eyes shut and, out of a force of habit, began to control my breathing. Each time I went into my trance-like state, I found that it became easier and easier, until it got to the point where I slipped into my meditative mode with ease. I could concentrate much easier, having learned how to block out all other senses.

However, I found I had trouble concentrating now. The argument had some effect on my conscience, and now I could nary think of anything else. What _were_ they talking about? Knowing how stubborn Penny was, though, I highly doubted I'd find out anytime soon. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if she held it over my head for a while, just to make me squirm.

Spoiled brat.

In all fairness, I probably shouldn't have listened in on their conversation in the first place. But they were talking about the Gang; why would Penny withhold information about them from me? An even better question would be where she got this information in the first place!

I sighed, pushing all my thoughts to the far reaches of my mind. The time for anger would come later. Now was the time for peace, and for myself so I could be better in my struggle against the Dark Gang. No matter how hard I tried, though, I couldn't get her words out of my head.

'_It's just. . . he has so much hate. I'm afraid that he may find out; I mean, who knows what he would do?'_

Hate? Me? Who was she to judge _me_? And, as irony would have it, I steamed over that very thought before I realized it was making my blood boil. I took a deep breath, willing my head to regain composure so that the rest of me could do the same. As my breathing slowed and my mind cleared again, though, something odd happened.

I saw the basement. Everything was there, and surprisingly, cast in a better light. I could see things more clearly than usual, from Leo resting limp in the corner, to the rise and fall of Penny's chest as she slept. But my eyes were still closed.

I tried to shut my eyes experimentally, and it was just as I thought: my eyes were still closed. I was seeing the cellar, clear as day, in my _mind_. Curious, I tried looking around and found I could do so without moving my head, and as I moved I could literally sense every bump, crack, and niche in the walls and floor of our prison.

My curiosity thoroughly piqued, I tried broadening my sight. The view widened, almost as if I were looking at the scene from overhead and was backing up. I could even see myself in the corner, barely moving in my deep state of concentration. I swept a paw out in front of me and, sure enough, the me I was seeing did the same.

I moved my sight back in and began moving about, effectively exploring the cellar. _Maybe_, I thought, _I can find a way out in this new light! _I really only half believed it, but it still didn't hurt to try.

I noticed that as I moved my sight closer to one wall, I became faintly aware of a strange noise, almost like a buzz in the back of my mind. I walked in one direction, it began to fade; I walked in the other and it got louder. Following that lead, I moved closer and closer until the buzz became a single low whine, and the whine became chattering, and the chattering eventually became something like muttering.

_That day in that park. . . I wish to be back there. . ._

It was Leo. Faint, but I could definitely tell it was his voice. I moved to point my sight at him; he was still curled in the corner, silent. Peculiar. I reached out, trying to hear what he was saying, but it still just sounded garbled. I pushed with all the strength I could muster, straining to reach out and hear his words.

I was instantly met with an enormous flash of light. I must've blinked or something for a moment, because when I my gaze fell upon him Leo again, he was wreathed in bright green flame. I tried to shout out in surprise, but remembered I wasn't _actually_ right there next to him. I watched in horror for a moment before I realized that he didn't seem to be burning. I hesitantly reached out towards him and was met with a flash of images so fast that it made my head swim.

_What have I done to deserve this?_ Leo's voice was clear now, echoing inside my head. Images filled my mind; I saw nothing else. Pictures of Leo; Leo playing with his trainer, Leo resting in the park, Leo sleeping alongside his mate. It all was accompanied by an immense feeling of desire, an overwhelming feeling of homesickness. It was completely unlike anything I could have ever imagined about Leo. It was a sign of weakness, almost. It was his deepest, innermost desire. _I just want to be home._

_It's his thoughts,_ I realized. _I'm reading his mind._ Suddenly everything clicked. Ralts had spoken often of abilities granted by powerful Aura control. This must've been part of it. I could picture my surroundings in my mind, I could feel the Aura of those around me. That must've been the green flame I saw around Leo, his Aura. This was part of my Aura powers; I could feel the Aura of the world around me when I concentrated.

Pain panged through my head, causing me to open my eyes and reel back. Leo's images burned in my mind for a moment before fading away. I just lay there for a moment contemplating what had just happened. I had unlocked a new Aura power, and it was frighteningly powerful. I could do naught but think of all the possibilities of invading an enemy's head, reading their every thought, predicting their every move! No secret would be safe from me.

It took a moment, but it dawned on me. No secret. . . would be safe. I gave a sideways glace at Penny. Should I do it? Could I do it?

Penny had a secret. A secret about the Dark Gang, therefore a potentially fatal secret. That was reason enough to probe her mind just a bit, right?

I closed my eyes again, slipping into the state of concentration with some anxiousness. I reached out again with my mind, taking in the room, and soon I could see the room in my mind. Of course, I realized now what was happening. I must've been using my Aura to read the space in a radius around me. I could see everything within this space clearly in my head.

Giving my Aura a little urge, I expanded my view, inching closer to Penny. It took longer for me to hear the buzz around Penny, though, as if hers was a better guarded mind. Closer I moved, goading my Aura along in blind anticipation. I was moving along slowly, carefully, which was completely unneeded because I knew it wouldn't wake the sleeping Penny. Still, I moved cautiously, sidling my Aura up to her until I felt the flash of light once again. Her Aura quickly came into focus, a stunningly bright white glow about her body. I was simply floored in awe by the light shining about her, playing with the sheen of her fur. I shook the feeling away, extending my Aura out towards her once again.

Her mind was difficult to breach; there was something almost like a wall around her mind, keeping me out. Another push, though, and I was in.

Once again, my mind was instantly flooded by images, but as longing and warm Leo's were, Penny's were dark and heartbreaking. I did my best to filter through the flashes of images and thoughts, but there was so much pain locked deep within her mind that it was like plucking sand from a raging river.

_The Dark Gang was my home. . ._ I heard her thoughts, accompanied by images of her surrounded by others of our same type. _They were the only family I knew. Especially Mightyena. _I was startled by a memory of her laying side-by-side with Mightyena, _the_ Mightyena, smiling happily in his embrace.

_They called him Black Fang, but to me he was my love. . ._ More related images flooded my head, blocking out everything else. I was trapped within the whirlwind of her reminiscence, stuck for the rest of the ride. _He betrayed me, though. And I was lost._ More painful memories rushed through, showing Penny's despair and distress; she really did love him!

_But then I was saved._

There was a single bright flash, and just as quickly as the memories had started, they stopped. I was forcefully ejected from Penny's head, the walls reinforcing her subconscious fortifying itself to impossible levels. I was left in a bit of a daze, my head spinning from the sudden ride. Penny's memories still burned brightly within my mind. It was so overwhelming, I couldn't think straight. My Aura wandered erratically, it was a long moment before I finally realized I felt another buzzing sensation.

_Enough stalling, time for a new subject. . ._

I was stricken where I stood, frozen in fear. The words brought a flash of dark red in my mind, accentuating the darkness behind the words. There was no mistaking it; The Collector was on his way.

"Shadow?" Penny's voice tore me away from my thoughts, bringing me with a screeching halt back to reality. "Shadow, what's wrong?"

I just watched her for a moment, unsure of how to proceed now that I knew what I knew. How could I ever speak to her like before, knowing that she had lain with a member of the Gang? How could I even be sure she wasn't a traitor?

No, something about her told me she wasn't. Maybe it was the purity of her Aura, or those last words I heard. . . I was about to say something to her when the door above crashed open, and the Collector stomped down the stairs.

"Hello, my trophies. . ."

--

"You're _absolutely_ sure?" Liekkau asked for the hundredth time. One hundred- forty seventh, to be exact, but Ralts wasn't the type to keep track.

_Yes!_ he said for the one hundred-forty seventh time, shaking his head. _I'm absolutely sure._

"Oh." Liekkau was silent for a moment, before turning back to Ralts. "And you're sure it's a. . ."

_To suggest that I am not sure. . . _Ralts grumbled, his patience long since gone. _Is to suggest that I may be wrong._

"Oh! I didn't-"

_I am _never_ wrong. _Ralts stared her straight in the eye, then went back to his lookout duty. Shadow and the other one were taking their sweet time with returning. A few hours is understandable given the circumstance, but to not come back in almost three days? Ralts looked back at the Flareon; she looked upset beyond belief. He sighed. _So, when do you plan to tell him?_

Liekkau shrugged. "I dunno. Not right now." She gasped and turned to Ralts. "You're not going to tell him, are you? Oh, please don't do that!"

Ralts shook his head. _Of course not._

Liekkau nodded. "Thank you. The time's just not right yet."

_When will the time be right? _Liekkau was silent. _You'll have to tell him eventually._

Liekkau sighed dejectedly. "I know, I know. I will, just. . . not yet."

Ralts nodded, satisfied. _Good._ The two sat in silence for a few minutes in contemplation before Leikkau looked back at him.

"Are you sure?"

Ralts growled, giving up.

--

"This is it," Leo moaned. "It's the end!"

"Now, which one of you wants to help me on a little. . ." The Collector cackled. ". . . project?"

Instinctively I stepped in front of Penny, standing between her and the Collector. He glared down at me, chuckling.

"So, is that an offer, then?" he grinned, picking me up by the scruff of the neck. I growled and snapped at his nose, but to no avail. "One as young as yourself shouldn't be so willing to die," he huffed.

"Shadow!" Penny cried, but there was nothing she could do while still roped to the wall.

"That's far enough, Jonathan." The new voice startled us all, including the Collector. The owner of the voice descended the stairs; a tall willowy man with blond hair and glasses. But it was his white labcoat that gave him away. I knew who this man was.

"He was at the research center!" I shouted, getting an alarmed look from Penny. "He was there when they made Liekkau and I. . ." I trailed off, not needing to explain any further. Penny nodded, turning back to the stranger.

"Are you sure it was him, Shadow?" Penny suddenly asked. I nodded.

"Positive."

Penny frowned. "Then this is worse than I imagined." She didn't offer any explanation, though. The two men were arguing loudly, interrupting our talk.

"You!" The Collector pointed an accusing finger at the stranger. "What are you doing here?"

The stranger chuckled. "You should've known we would find you eventually. You couldn't hide one of our projects for very long, could you?"

The Collector seemed confused for a moment, then looked down at me in his hand, then back up at the stranger. "You mean-" The stranger nodded. Almost instantly the Collector dropped me as if I were on fire.

"Officially, Project Shadow is dead," the stranger reached beneath his coat and pulled out a pistol. He pointed the weapon at me, but still stared the Collector in the eye. "But we need to make sure that he's gone for good." The whitecoat's finger tightened on the trigger.

I squeezed my eyes shut, preparing for the worst. There was a loud crack as the gun went off, and, ironically, in my state of concentration I could feel the life force being extinguished, like a candle being blown out. It got a little colder in the room, the gunshot bouncing of the walls and ringing in my ears.

_Am I. . . dead?_ I wondered, daring to crack an eye open. The whitecoat was standing at the foot of the stairs, staring at his shoes. He dropped the gun at his feet and sighed. I was alive! But then I realized that someone had been shot; I looked over at Penny. She was doing the same as me, glancing around nervously. I sighed. Thank goodness she was alive!

She noticed me looking at her. "Shadow. . ." she muttered, than gasped. I turned to look at the source of her gasp; the Collector had sunk to his knees, his eyes wide. Blood was blossoming from a wound on his chest, staining his leather jacket. He looked down at his own chest in shock, then back up at the whitecoat.

"Really, Marcoh?" he whispered, chuckling. The attempt made him cough up a mouthful of blood. "You think. . . it'll be you?" The Collector fell forwards onto his front, chuckling until he took one last, shuddering breath.

We all stood there in silence for a moment, waiting for someone else to make a move. After an achingly long pause, I stood up and took a ring of keys from The Collector's pocket. I stuck a key into Leo's shackle and turned it, freeing the Linoone. Leo stood up gingerly and tested out his legs. I turned and saw that the whitecoat had pulled a knife from his pocket and was sawing his way through the rope around Penny's ankle.

"Just go," he said after freeing Penny and cutting through my own binding. Penny gave me a look and nodded up the stairs. I helped Leo take a few steps and began him up the stairs, then followed him.

"Coming, Penny?" I asked hesitantly. Penny turned around and followed me to the stairs.

"Yup, let's go." We left through the open door to the basement, and found the front door. Taking our first step into the light of day was an amazing, revitalizing feeling. I looked at Penny, she had her eyes closed and a smile of satisfaction on her face. I decided not to confront her right away about what I found out; I could've sworn, as we left, that she and the whitecoat exchanged nods, but I could wait to ask her.

We were free, after all.

**A/N: Phew, that was pretty tiring to write, actually. Thanks for reading everyone! Please review, as always, and visit my new Community! We're still in our humble beginnings, but for those of you who like stories like this one, you should find something you like there!**


	12. What the ?

Author's Note: Well, that was a welcome break

**Author's Note: Well, that was a welcome break. Except for the homework, practice, relatives, and money problems.**

**Sigh.**

**Oh, well. I finally found time to sit down and write. I've more or less fleshed out the details of both stories, and I am now ready to plot out the (in-the-works) trilogy following up these to stories. Have I told you about that yet? No? **

**Oh, yeah. Surprise! Yup, there'll be a further continuation of Christine's bloodline! Er, should the fans want one, that is. If not, I've always got other projects to work on. Give me your input.**

_There was once a time I did not know,_

_And less did I understand._

_But luckily, as things would go,_

_I soon would learn firsthand._

We set off immediately, incredibly anxious to get back to Ralts and Liekkau. Obviously, we walked around for a few minutes before I remembered we had no idea how to get around. Luckily, Leo was still with us and insisted he would help us get to the park before returning home. Penny and I agreed, having no other option. We wouldn't have cared, anyway. We were tired. We just wanted to get the heck out of there.

So Leo led us through various alleys and down winding streets, confidant he was leading us the right way. I kept glancing sidelong at Penny; it seemed she was about in the mood to talk as I was. I would ask her about the whitecoat later. We broke free of the buildings suddenly, and I recognized the trees and sound of running water. We had reached the park.

"So, where are they?" Leo asked, halting in place. I took a look around, trying to find the telltale bridge.

"Umm. . . a small bridge going over the stream," I said. "They were supposed to meet us there. But. . . I don't know if they've already left or not." Leo shrugged.

"Only one way to find out, right?" He began walking again with us in tow. I looked at Penny; she was gazing up at the sky, lost in her thoughts. I considered for a split second attempting to read her mind again, but decided against it.

"You okay?" I asked quietly, out of earshot of Leo. Penny flashed me a quick, unconvincing smile.

"Yeah. Never better. Why?"

"You're a little distant," I pointed out. Penny shrugged.

"I'm surprised you aren't shaken up after what we all just went through."

"I _am_ shaken up," I insisted. "But you're acting different. Like something is on your mind."

Penny shook her head. "Don't worry about it, Shadow."

"Penny. . ."

"Don't worry about it, Shadow," she hissed a bit more forcefully. And if she hadn't been acting suspicious as it was, that would've have convinced me. She was hiding something.

"Shadow?! Penny!" Liekkau's voice bolted me to my senses. I looked around; we had arrived in the park. The bridge was just ahead; Liekkau jumped down from it and ran towards us with a gigantic smile on her face. "You're okay! You won't believe how worried we've been!" She stopped before us and bowed her head. "_Fortunen siunaukset_!"

"Huh?" I recognized the language as the same that Penny and the Mightyena had been using. Penny chuckled.

"Luck had nothing to do with it," Penny smiled. "We were rescued."

Liekkau gasped. "Rescued? Just where _were _you two?" Penny chuckled.

"Come on, I'll fill you in. . ." The two walked off, leaving me alone to contemplate Penny's behavior. She was obviously hiding something.

_You are unharmed?_ Ralts walked up, arms folded.

"Good to see you too, Ralts," I muttered. "Penny and I are fine, just a bit worn out." I shrugged when Ralts eyed the bright pink patches of skin where the Collector branded me. "This is Leo, by the way." I nodded lazily over my shoulder at the linoone.

_What happened? Why were you not here?_

I sighed. I could've gotten more sympathy from a brick wall. I should not have expected any less from the psychic, though. "We were captured shortly after escaping the mightyena. Some 'Collector' fellow."

_So you've been there this whole time?_

"Yeah," I responded quickly, then a though crossed through my head. "Wait, 'whole time'? How long have we been gone?"

Ralts didn't need to answer, for at that very moment Penny shouted, "Five days!?" I looked at Ralts; he nodded.

_The flareon insisted we wait, _Ralts explained, practically reading my mind.

"Your concern is touching," I muttered crossly. I sighed, then looked back at Leo. "Thanks for all your help."

The linoone smiled. It was weird to see him. . . well, _happy_. "No, thank you. If not for you, I may not be able to return to my dear Vera." Leo bowed his head. "I owe you my life."

I shook my head. "I owe you nothing. Just glad to be. . . free." Leo nodded his approval.

"Where will you go now?" Leo asked. I really didn't know the answer myself; after all, the Dark Gang would probably be after us now. We could go anywhere and just run into another trap. Honestly, we really couldn't go _anywhere_. I was about to vocalize this point, but Ralts cut in.

_North,_ he said. _To the capitol._

"North," I nodded in agreement. Then I thought it through and turned to face Ralts. "North? Isn't going to the capitol a bad idea? The Dark Gang will be there for sure."

_Exactly,_ Ralts nodded. _The fact that you were captured by who you claimed you were shows that the Dark Gang is in disarray. We strike while the iron is hot._

". . . strike?"

_I'll explain later._ Ralts grumbled. He looked at Leo. _Many thanks for returning these two to us._

Leo nodded again. "Of course. Good luck, all of you." With one last nod, he turned and dashed off towards the city.

"So, why are we striking?" I asked, curious as to Ralts' sudden change in ideals. "WE should be going _away_ from the Dark Gang, shouldn't we?"

_Now is good a time as any to attack. It is time you met your destiny. _

"Destiny?"

Ralts sighed. _Enough of that for now. It will all become clear soon enough._

I nodded, but was still unsatisfied. It seemed I would never get my questions answered. And yet the game went on, and I was playing with half the rules. Everyone else seemed to know more than they were telling me.

"Oh, Ralts," I said as the psychic began walking away. He turned.

_Yes?_

"Something odd happened while we were captured." I figured now would be the best time to tell him about the mind-reading thing. He couldn't tell me anything else, but perhaps he could shed some light on my powers.

_Oh?_ Ralts crossed his arms. _What sort of odd thing?_

"Well," I thought, not sure where to begin. "While I was meditating. . . it was like my Aura was mobile. And when I got near Penny and Leo, I could feel this amazing power, and I could literally _see_ their thoughts."

_Aha._ Ralts was obviously pleased. _See? You are improving. Your dormant abilities are becoming active. Soon, you will be able to face the Dark Gang._

"Is that why you freed me?" I asked suddenly, the question spontaneously coming to me. "Am I just a tool to you?" In a strange way, it made sense. Why else would he even _try _to help me unless he wanted to use me to put a stop to the Dark Gang.

_Listen, I-_ Ralts grumbled, avoiding my gaze. _It's rather complicated. Yes, it is why I helped you escape. I saw the potential in you; you can take down the Dark Gang once and for all._

"Ralts, what is this about? Are you good, or. . ." I trailed the question off. I needed to know; he freed me to defeat the Dark Gang, but was it for justice, or for revenge?

Ralts honestly looked like he was going to give me a straight answer for a change. He looked at me for a long moment, then shook his head. _This is neither the time nor the place for that answer. In time, Shadow._

He walked away.

I kicked at the ground furiously. Why couldn't I get a single straight answer!? Penny wasn't telling me what she was trying to hide, Ralts was dodging my questions, and now I bet even Liekkau had a secret to hide!

"Shadow? A-are you coming?" Speaking of Liekkau, she appeared a few feet away, having apparently finished talking to Penny. "Ralts said we're leaving."

I nodded at her. "Yeah, he says we're going north. You know why?"

"N-no," she stuttered, looking eager to leave.

"What's wrong?" I asked. She was obviously nervous, and she kept avoid my gaze. Something was up.

"Nothing at all. I'm so glad you and Penny are safe." She flashed me a brief, nervous smile, then turned and rejoined Penny and Ralts near the bridge. I could almost feel my jaw hit the ground.

What. The. Hell?

Did _everyone_ have a secret they had to keep from me!?

"Coming, Shadow?" Penny asked.

I nodded reluctantly and followed them.

--

"North?" Liekkau repeated my earlier question as we neared the northern gate. "Why north?"

_Everything worth going to is up there._ Ralts explained unhelpfully.

"Oh," Liekkau muttered, but obviously still didn't quite understand. We walked on in silence, no one daring to say a word.

So much for a warm welcome.

_Look, _Ralts said, still walking straight ahead. _There is much to explain_, _but little time to do so. We need to reach the capitol before-_

"Before. . . what?" The voice came from behind us; a cool, sickly smooth voice. It sent shivers down my spine, made the fur on my neck stand on end. But I recognized the voice all too well.

_Before that, _Ralts said with a sigh.

"You," I growled without turning around. The owner of the voice chuckled behind me.

"Who?" Liekkau asked nervously, glancing at me. Of course she wouldn't know who he was; she'd get the picture soon enough.

"Houndoom." I spat the word out. Beside me, Penny began growling at the canine Pokemon. This just seemed to be even funnier to Houndoom, though, because he began to laugh harder.

"Surprised to see me?" He grinned, stepping towards us. He nodded at me. "Long time, no see, lover boy." I narrowed my eyes at him. I wanted to hurt the guy so damn badly.

"What are you doing here, dog?" Penny hissed. From the corner of my eye I could see the hackles of her fur were raised. For a brief moment I wondered if I looked just as stupid, but I quickly retained my glare at our opponent.

"Oh, why the hostilities?" Houndoom asked in mock pain. "Like a dagger through the heart, Penumbra. Aren't you glad to see me again?"

"Burn in hell," was her answer. Houndoom just shrugged.

"Say what you like. I just want to do what I was sent here to do and be gone." Houndoom grinned slyly. "If you'd like to come with, Penumbra, I'd be more than happy to. . ." I took a step forward.

"Didn't you learn your lesson last time?" I asked him, confidant that taking him down would barely require any effort at all. It was four on one; what could he do? "We just got done beating down one of your comrades, and we can't beat you again!"

Houndoom chuckled. I really hated when he did that. Or when any villain did, for that matter. It was always a bad sign. "You think so, eh?" I took a single step towards him; he grinned and I swear I saw a flash of yellow and suddenly. . . he vanished. Gone. Completely gone.

"What the-" I wasn't expecting a sudden blow from behind. It sent me toppling forward, the world doing flips until I came to a stop on my back. I groaned and cracked open an eye and saw that Houndoom had just as easily knocked Liekkau aside as well, and was staring Penny down.

"This is your last chance, Penny," Houndoom warned. "You can't avoid us forever." Penny shook her head resolutely.

"I told you, I'm done with you. All of you. Now just leave us alone!"

Houndoom laughed again. Louder this time. "You won't believe how wrong you are, my dear friend." He nodded at me over his shoulder. "As long as you're with the spaz, we're never going to leave you alone. And as for being done with us. . . heh, let's just say that you're in for a surprise."

"A. . . surprise?" Houndoom's statement caught her off guard, but also incapacitated the dog. I quickly got to my feet and lunged at him, but he vanished again. I hit the empty ground hard and got followed up by a crushing blow to my side. I slid across the ground, finally bumping into a rock.

Houndoom raised his head, having just rammed me with his horns. "Full of surprises today, aren't I?" he mocked. I tried to get to my feet, but I was certain I had heard a crack after Houndoom's assault and it was difficult to breathe, much less stand up.

"Houndoom!" Penny called. "What do you mean by 'Surprise'?!" Penny sounded alarmed, like she may have known what the Dark Gang had in mind. Houndoom just chuckled and shook his head.

"You really don't know?" Penny shook her head; Houndoom laughed again and turned to Ralts. "Have you been holding out on them old-timer?"

_They needn't know things prematurely._ Ralts crossed his arms but made no attempts to help us fight Houndoom. I doubt it would have made a difference either way, considering Ralts' attacks would have had little effect against the dark Pokemon.

Houndoom shook his head. "A losing philosophy, oldster. Knowledge is power, you know."

"But-" Liekkau finally spoke up, albeit quietly. She stood her ground but still addressed the dog Pokemon meekly. "How do you know what's going to happen?"

"Simple: we have a clairvoyant on our team as well," Houndoom explained with a grin. "Except ours is willing to tell us her sights." He shrugged. "Doesn't matter. You'll all know soon enough."

"Houndoom-" Penny growled in annoyance. She obviously wanted desperately to know what the Dark Gang had planned.

Houndoom chuckled. "So long, everyone. Keep it real!" He turned to walk away. I figured I had one last chance so, summoning the strength with a little boost from my Aura, I ran right after Houndoom and leapt at him.

I found myself facedown in the dirt with a heavy weight leaning against my back. I could feel someone breathing hot air on the back of my neck.

"Too slow," Houndoom muttered in my ear. I could practically hear the grin in his voice. "Oh, and do enjoy that injury." He stepped down from my back and, almost as quickly as he had shown up, he was gone.

No one said anything for a long moment. I was struggling to regain my composure while Liekkau and Ralts sat deep in thought, and Penny quietly seethed to herself.

"What the _hell_ just happened?!" I demanded, finally getting my second wind. Liekkau didn't look up, Penny continued to pace back and forth muttering angrily to herself. We had just gotten our asses handed to us by a single Dark gangster! And Houndoom nonetheless!

_We are late,_ Ralts stated simply. _We've no time to waste. We are at a critical time in this war._

"But what's going on!?" I shouted, finally fed up with knowing only half the rules. "I have no idea what's going on! Who are the Dark Gang, and what do they want? What does this have to do with me, with Penny, with any of us!?" I got right up in Ralts' face. "WHAT'S GOING ON!?"

Liekkau glanced off to the side nervously, but Penny just outright stared at me like I had lost my marbles. And maybe I had. Somewhere along this path I lost something. Ralts shook his head.

_In due time, Shadow,_ he said morosely. _I'm sorry I cannot explain it to you now. _

"And why not?"

_There is still too much for you to learn. Too much still that needs to happen. Until then, all we can do is go north, and train. It is time you learned the full capabilities of your Aura._ Ralts began to walk away, back down the road.

"So, wait," I said, stopping him. "You really can see the future?" Ralts nodded.

_I know the future. But the very future itself is why I cannot tell you. _Ralts shrugged. _You have shown great promise; we are going down the right path. _

"Just, tell me one thing: Are we going to take down these guys or not?"

Ralts took a moment to answer, but he nodded. _Yes, we shall. _

"Then I'm in." I looked around; Penny and Liekkau nodded, too.

"I shall follow wherever you may lead, Shadow," Liekkau said, giving me a reassuring smile.

"Let's go kick some ass!" Penny grinned, looking at me. I turned to Ralts, he nodded.

_North, it is._

And so our journey to stop the Dark Gang finally began.

**A/N: Wheee, exposition. Ugh. **

**Took me forever to finish this up. Accursed writer's block. Expect more updates sooner, though, because this is probably the last chapter that I will struggle to finish. I already have an idea of what the last chapters will contain, so it'll be easier to determine what to type next.**

**Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed. And I think it really is true: the amount of reviews I get and my update times are not mutually exclusive. It's up to you now, readers!**


	13. My Friends

**A/N: No update in. . . four months?**

**UNACCEPTABLE.**

**Darn, these stories are taking way longer than I expected (though, to be honest, at first the story was supposed to be shorter- it'd probably be wrapping up in a chapter or two. . .) Next time I'll be working on less stories all at once.**

**I shan't let it get to me, though. Hopefully not to you, either. All I really have to worry about now is losing my readers' interest. . . but that won't happen, right? **

**. . . erm, anyways. Here's the chapter.**

_And so we traveled to northern haven,_

_To those whom our souls have been craven._

_In the end our own path we will have graven,_

_And so we go, to meet our fate._

We prepared ourselves as we passed through Clearwater's northern gate, both mentally and physically. This was going to be a tough trip, and we had no idea what we were heading into. We were delving into the heart of the Dark Gang's operation, so we would most likely be in danger every step of the way, and not to mention when we arrived.

To be completely honest, after that display with Houndoom, I wasn't so confidant anymore. His words had shaken us all up, and his new abilities were. . . disconcerting, to say the least. I'm not sure how we were supposed to fare against one, much less an army of superpowered Dark Gangsters. And I still couldn't shake something that bothered me during that whole fight. The mysterious flash of yellow. . . it was unnatural. It had to have had something to do with Houndoom's speed and power. But. . . what was it?

We had barely made it through the gate before we heard a shout from behind us.

"Hey! Don't think you're going anywhere without me!" All of us turned around, and we were all equally surprised to see Leo bounding down the road towards us (all except Ralts, of course- he probably knew it was coming the whole time). We all stopped to let the Linoone catch up with us.

"Leo?" Penny asked, "What are you doing here? Weren't you going back to your mate?"

The weasel shrugged. "I did. I got there, and I said goodbye. Someone needs to keep you lot down to earth."

"But. . ." I started, not catching his logic. He wanted to return home so badly, why. . . why would he come back to help us? "Why would you come with us?"

Leo gazed at me solemnly for a long moment. "It was not an easy decision, believe you me. But. . . I get this strange feeling while I'm around you. Like you're all meant for a higher purpose." He closed his eyes, as if momentarily regretting his decision, then opened them. "And I want to help you. Besides, if you're all as important as I sense you are, then I am confidant that I will return to my mate safely."

We were all speechless, not entirely sure what to think.

"Um, of course, we'd love to have you!" Liekkau chirped joyously. She smiled at Leo, who returned the gesture. Penny shook her head at the Flareon's childishness, but welcomed Leo anyways.

_Touching_, Ralts drawled. Seeing that no one else reacted, I figured he was speaking solely to me. _It seems another is influenced by your Aura._

_What do you mean?_ I thought back. I smiled briefly when Leo turned to me, gave him a quick nod of approval, then returned my glare to Ralts. _What influence are you talking about?_

_Surely you feel it._ Ralts nodded slightly at Leo, as if to approve his presence, all without looking at me. No one would guess we were communicating with each other; I figured this was a dire matter if it required so much secrecy. _Your Aura is growing. I could even feel it while you were being held captive._

He was absolutely right. And for a moment I hesitated to tell him everything that had gone on in the Collector's house. But I realized he could probably read my mind or something anyways, so why not? Maybe he could help me understand this better.

_Yes, I can feel it too._ I admitted. _And. . . there was the strange thing that happened while we were captive._

_Yes, that quite intrigued me,_ Ralts muttered. _In fact, I'd like to hear all about it. In more depth, if you don't mind._

As our group began down the road out of Clearwater, I explained everything to Ralts: all that had happened from the time we were pursued by Mightyena, while we were in the captivity of the Collector, all about the Aura sight, the mind reading. . . and he listened quietly until I finally finished with our mysterious escape.

_Sounds like you've made some serious progress_, Ralts noted humorlessly, arms crossed as we walked. _Astonishing progress, in fact. I think later today I shall give you your next lesson._

_Lesson?_ I asked him. He nodded.

_You must learn to control your Aura. It is your greatest weapon, if you know how to use it properly._ Ralts cut off the mental link there, pulling ahead of the rest of the group. I sighed, thinking it over. I wanted to learn more about my powers. . . but I wished Ralts could have just told me plainly. I supposed I should learn more about my Aura and how to control it, but. . . something didn't feel right. I wasn't sure about Ralts' intentions; what if he was training me to be a weapon of his own desires? I was not about to be used, not by anyone! Not by Ralts, and certainly not the Dark Gang!

But. . . what if the situation ever arose where Penny or Liekkau needed me. . . wouldn't it be best if I could protect them? I growled in frustration. I decided to listen to Ralts' lessons, at least for now.

I decided that, in the meantime, I should talk to everyone else, especially Penny. I wanted to ask her about the thoughts I saw; seeing her time in the Dark Gang so vividly. . . and Mightyena! She. . . she loved him. But he betrayed her, and. . .

My mind tossed furiously, sorting this new information. It was imperative that I spoke to her about it. It may have been hard to confront her, but. . . I felt like it was something I had to do. My mind would not be at ease until I did.

Then there was the fact of Leo and Liekkau. Ralts said Leo was influenced by my Aura. . . did that mean he was coming with, leaving his mate behind. . . because of me? I was appreciative of his wanting to help, but I was unconvinced that it was what was best for him. He deserved to be back with his trainer and mate after all he'd been through, and there was no guarantee that we would be coming back. I didn't want him to get injured unnecessarily because of me.

And Liekkau. . . she had been acting dodgy ever since Penny and I returned. It was strange, and a little concerning. What if something happened while we were gone. . . or what if her secret was dangerous to the rest of us?

"What's the matter, Shadow?" I looked up: Penny and Ralts had pulled ahead, but Liekkau was watching me curiously.

"Huh?" I realized she had noticed me staring at her as we walked. Embarrassed, I looked away.

"I said, 'What's the matter?'" Liekkau repeated, slowing her pace so she was walking shoulder-and-shoulder with me. "You're acting strange."

_Like you're the one to talk, _I thought. I faced her anyways, giving her a slight shrug.

"Oh, it's nothing, Honest." I added quickly when she raised a brow at me. Liekkau shook her head, he face showing uncertainty.

"Really, Shadow? You mean it?" she asked with a frown. I nodded, not intending to worry her. "I'm just worried about you. . ."

Her words tugged at a heartstring. I felt a little guilty for suspecting her of keeping a dangerous secret. That last thing I wanted to do was hurt her feelings or make her worry, especially after all she had been put through at the Dark Gang's building.

I shrugged. "Nah, I just have a lot to think about."

"Like what?"

I shrugged again. I had hoped she would have dropped the subject by this point; what was I supposed to do, tell her I had suspicions and was onto her?

"The Dark Gang, my family, this strange power. . . nothing to be worried about." Liekkau's frown deepened, creasing her forehead. She took a step closer, looking me right in the eye. I hadn't noticed it before then, but her eyes were a bit red, as if she had been crying.

"Really?" She asked me, studying my face. I was curious at this sudden interest in me. Why was she so intent on reading my mind? "That's it?"

I figured now was good a time as any to ask her what was on my mind. "Liekkau. . ." I started, looking back up the path. We were both lagging far behind Penny and Ralts. "You looked like you were going to ask me something earlier."

"Oh." Liekkau turned away, suddenly distracted by some faraway object. Curious.

"Well. . . what was it?"

"It was nothing," she answered quickly, mumbling at the ground. If I hadn't known better, I could have sworn she was blushing. But there was no reason for her to be embarrassed. . . right?

"C'mon, Liekkau. What's on your mind?" She was silent. "Seriously, Liekkay. What was it?"

"It's nothing!" she shouted, looking up. She had tears forming in her otherwise stunningly blue eyes. "I just. . . I missed you, is all." She trailed off, her gaze falling back to the ground.

Her reaction caught me completely off guard. I could tell I wasn't getting the whole story here, but it was still sort of touching. . . and I didn't want to press her too hard for answers.

"Hey, hey. . ." I said softly, lowering my head near hers. "I'm sorry, Liekkau. I missed you too, you know. It's good to be back. . ."

Liekkau shook her head. "No, no, I'm sorry. It's all my fault."

"Your fault?" I asked, confused by her sudden new opinion. "What is?" Liekkau stiffened, lfting her head back up. I did the same, watching her with concern. She took a few moments of preparation before sighing and closing her eyes.

"I'm so sorry, I should have told you sooner." Liekkau lowered her voice, glancing up to make sure we were still a safe distance from Penny and Ralts. "Shadow, there's something I Really need to tell you. But I'm not sure how to. . ."

I shook my head, silencing her. "If you don't want to talk about it now, that's fine." She opened her mouth to speak, but I interrupted her before she could argue. "It's okay, you're obviously uncomfortable about this. Tell me when you're ready." I smiled at her, a subtle gesture which she returned.

"Thank you, Shadow. You really don't know how much you. . . how much this means to me."

I smiled. "Thanks, Liekkau. . . you mean a lot to me, too." I swear I saw her blush before she turned away. She had a big smile on her face, though. I guess I did something right there, because I rejoined the group with a smile across my face, too.

Alright, one down, three to go.

We stopped some time later to rest a bit and eat. We all pitched in to clear a spot in the trees bordering the path and then catch our lunch. Luckily there was a small holding pond nearby, so we managed to gather a decent amount of food. Penny, Leo, and I were ravenous after being held captive, so the three of us ate practically everything. Ralts and Liekkau didn't seem to mind, though. Ralts remained with his usual stoic expression, and throughout the meal Liekkau kept catching my eye contact then turning away, blushing.

After we had sufficiently stuffed ourselves, we settled down to rest a bit. Penny fell asleep almost instantly beneath a tree, and Liekkau dragged Ralts off somewhere. That left me alone with Leo. Perfect.

I approached him cleaning his paws in the holding pond. He noticed my reflection in the water and looked up, smiling.

"Darn messy fish, y'know?" he said, waving his paws dry in the air. "Okay, I'm a bit of a freak about being clean, but. . ."

"You didn't have to come with," I interrupted, cutting to the chase. Leo shrugged.

"And you didn't have to help me escape. I guess we're both idiots." Leo shrugged again and lay down by the pond, folding his paws in front of him. "I was thankful for what you did, though. That's why I'm helping you."

I frowned. "There's no guarantee we'll return, you know," I warned him softly. Leo was gazing silently into the water. "You may never see your mate again, you know. It's not too late to turn back."

Leo didn't respond for a long while. Eventually he sighed and looked up at me. The weariness showed in his face; he had been through a lot, and the stress of the situation was clearly still bothering him. "I went to go see Vera before you left, you know. She was relieved to see I was well."

"Then why did you leave? When I read your-" I froze, remembering I hadn't told him about my little escapade into he and Penny's minds. I decided it was best to leave to myself. "Erm, when you spoke of her, I could tell you love her very much."

Leo nodded. "Of course I do. More than life itself. But I knew this was the right decision. I had to repay you somehow."

I shook my head. "No, it can't be that simple. This had to have been a hard choice to make. . ."

Leo sighed again, closing his eyes so tight it made his brow crease. The whole thing made him look like a tired old man. "Of course it was difficult. Hardest decision I've ever made. But I knew I had to help you."

We sat in silent contemplation, listening to the sounds of the birds in the trees and the fish splashing in the water. Penny was snoring softly not too far away, and I could hear Liekkau and Ralts discussing something further into the trees.

"I'm going to be a father, you now," Leo said softly. He was staring at his reflection in the water, contemplating himself. "When I returned to Vera, she told me. . ." Leo looked up at me again, his face all business but his eyes soft and pleading. "Please make this worth my while. . . and live. This was a difficult decision, and I intend to return home from this little escapade. But you need to promise me that we will all see this through to the end, and we will all return home safely."

I watched him for a long time, taking in his features. I understood now why he chose to come with: it was to pay us back. If we hadn't help him escape, he would never have been able to see this child of his. . . and he wanted to help us while he still could. It was an incredible gesture on his part. . . an act of complete selflessness.

I nodded at him. "I promise, Leo. We'll all get through this safely. . . I'll make sure you return home to your family."

Leo smiled thankfully. "Of course we will, Shadow. Now that I'm the group's voice of reason, nothing will go wrong." He gave me a wink to show he was joking and rested his head in his arms, watching the ripples in the water.

_Halfway there_, I thought. _But that was the easy part. . ._

I left Leo alone to his thoughts choosing instead to go to where Penny was sleeping. She must have been exhausted, having conked out as abruptly as she had. I was half-tempted to read her mind again while she was asleep, but decided against it. I vowed silently to not use the power unless there was a dire need.

_Shadow._ I turned to see Ralts and Liekkau emerging from the trees; Liekkau had a big, beatific smile plastered across her face. She took a spot near Leo by the pond, lying down in a way similar to him.

_Shadow!_

_Whuh?_ Ralts was standing in front of me, arms crossed. _Oh, sorry. What is it, Ralts?_

_Come. It is time you learned a bit more about your Aura._

The two of us stood walked deeper into the woods, probably to the spot where Ralts and Liekkau had spoken. Ralts stopped in a small clearing, turning to face me.

_So, you have a question for me? _Ralts asked, ever right on the money. I nodded.

_What happened at the Collector's house. . . when I could read Penny and Leo's minds. How do you explain that?_

_To be perfectly honest, it surprised me,_ Ralts admitted. Whoa, that was new. Took him by surprise? _The Aura Sight is a hard ability to master. . . the fact that you managed it is perplexing._

_What is it, exactly?_

_It is exactly as you said, _Ralts said matter-of-factly. _The Sight allows you to see others' Auras. But what you have done. . . forming it into a semi-corporeal form, and the mind reading. . . it is unlike anything I've ever seen before._

_What do you mean? _I asked.

_As you know now, your Aura is special, _Ralts began, folding his arms. _It is special in the sense that you can manifest it into any form you so choose, as long as you are able to._

I cocked my head. _Manifest? What do you mean?_

Ralts gestured to a strong oak tree beside him. _Say you wished to cut down this tree. That is possible for you to do, using your Aura. You just need to know what to form your Aura into._

I stepped up to the tree, examining it closely. _Alright, how do I cut it down?_

_Simple,_ Ralts said, standing by my side. _Access the wellspring of your Aura—you can do so with relative ease now, yes? Without meditating?_

_Of course_, I replied, reaching deep within myself and finding the cloud of black, now looking more like a neat circuit of black thread.

_Good. Now, the easiest way to manifest Aura is to imagine what it is you wish to do with it. For this task, just imagine a cut being made, or imagine this tree being cut._

I took a firm grasp on my Aura and concentrated on the tree, picturing in my mind some force cutting it in two. The harder I concentrated, the harder I grasped my Aura, trying my damndest to cut down the tree.

Ralts sighed. _Alright, it may help to envision an object that would cause this action. For this case, perhaps imagine a sword, or a similar cutting device. _

I nodded and bolstered my grip on my Aura, concentrating once again. But this time, I imagined a curved black sword appearing before me, swinging back and, with a mighty thrust, slicing cleanly through the trunk of the tree. There was a buzzing in the back of my mind and somehow the image of the sword cutting the tree became more real, like it was appearing right there before me. The buzzing in the back of my head grew stronger; I shut my eyes tight and imagined the Aura sword swinging once more, more powerful than before. . .

"BLACK BLADE!" I shouted without realizing it, the buzzing in my head growing to a fever pitch before seeming to be released. A loud _SHHNNK!_ Echoed through the trees, breaking the silence. After a moment, I dared to open my eyes.

The tree was still standing before me, but now it had a line running cleanly down the middle of the tree, dividing it vertically. With another loud _SNAP!_, the two halves separated, falling to the ground in opposite directions. I took a step back, my head spinning slightly.

_Very good, _Ralts thought, examining my handiwork. _Extraordinary, really. You should not have been able to do this for quite a while. . ._

_Really? _I thought back, my thoughts a bit scrambled and hard to form into a rational sentence.

_Oh, yes. You will feel disoriented for a while, _Ralts said. _Using your Aura often has that effect. Do not worry._

_Should we try once more?_ I asked once my head cleared. Ralts shook his head.

_No, that is quite enough for now. I must try to figure out this new turn of events._ Without another word, Ralts turned away, heading back towards our camp. I could hear his mumbling thoughts as he stalked off. Something that caught Ralts off guard? I was two for two- it definitely wasn't a good thing.

But all the Aura work was just a horrible reminder that I needed to speak to Penny about her memories. And the sooner, the better. I sighed and, gathering up my courage, followed Ralts back to our camp.

Penny was still asleep when I arrived. For a moment I considered waiting for a later day to confront her, but I knew that it was best to get out of the way now.

I was a bit worried, though. Penny had never been one to open up before. . . I knew very little about her past. How did she know Mightyena, where had she learned the Astari language. . . it was all so confusing. But I had a sinking suspicion that I knew what would come from this. I knew that once I asked her about her past. . . nothing was going to be the same.

I heard Penny stir beside me. She opened one eye and yawned sleepily. "Hey, Shadow," she muttered. She frowned when she saw how seriously I was looking down at her, though. 'What's the matter, Shadow?"

I sighed. "Penny, there's something we need to talk about." I looked behind me, making sure that the rest of the group was a safe distance away. Even still, I lowered my voice. "I need to know something about your past."

Penny sighed in frustration. "Again, Shadow? I told you, I'm not telling you anything."

"Well why not?" I demanded, trying to keep my tones hushed. It would probably have been easier for Penny if she told me alone.

"Shadow, it doesn't matter," Penny insisted. "There's no reason for you to keep asking like this!" Penny sat up, shaking her head like a disappointed parent who had reprimanded her child one too many times.

I frowned, deciding to skip right to the point. "Who's Black Fang?"

Penny stiffened. "What?" she asked, feigning ignorance.

"Who," I repeated slowly, "is Black Fang?" Penny frowned, leaning in close to me.

"Where did you hear that name?" she demanded. I grinned.

"I thought it didn't matter." Penny growled, shaking her head vigorously.

"It _doesn't_. Just drop it, Shadow." She brushed past me and began heading towards the others.

"You loved him." I said quietly, stopping Penny dead in her tracks. She remained motionless for several moments before turning back to meet my gaze. "You loved him. . ."

"What do you want me to say, Shadow?" she asked me softly. "Yes, I loved him once. It was a mistake."

"Mightyena," I said. Penny nodded slightly. "Penny, what did he do to you?" Penny took another step towards me, getting up in my face, looking me right in the eye.

"Shadow, that's. . . that's a story for another day." My hopes fell. Did she really distrust me so? I mean, after everything we'd been through together. . . "But I promise; someday I will tell you."

I nodded. "Penny, I-"

"Shadow," Penny said sternly, placing one of her paws over mine. "Do not become like him. You're better than Mightyena, I know you are; promise me you will not become him."

I smiled. "Of course, Penny. I promise." Penny returned the smile, her face lighting up. God, she was beautiful.

"Good," she said, then leaned forward and gave me a quick kiss on my nose. "C'mon, we should probably join the others."

I watched Penny walk away, dumbstruck, wondering what I deserved to have met a wonderful girl like her. Sure, I didn't find out what I had intended, but. . . for some reason I felt like I could trust her to tell me when the time was right.

"Shadow!" Liekkau called to me, gesturing for me to join the group. "We are about to leave! Are you ready?"

"If we go now, we can stop when it gets dark and be in Metro by mid-afternoon," Leo said. "We need to hurry, though." Ralts and Penny nodded.

_Come, we have little time to spare._

"Are you coming, Shadow?" Penny called, smiling at me.

I didn't deserve it. It was simple as that. To have met these people, all these amazing people. . . it was a thousand lifetimes' worth of luck. But I couldn't help but think. . . what if I didn't deserve this? Here I was, traveling towards danger and who-knows-what-else, and these four followed me every step of the way, helping me unquestioningly. They were my partners. . . they were my friends.

"Coming!" I called back, running towards them.

And I wouldn't want it any other way.

**A/N: All aboard the exposition train! Whoo whoo! **

**And thus ends another chapter. . . hope you all like it! I made this one longer than usual to make up for the slow update here. **

**I'd like to mention, though, that from this point on both of my stories will become much more exciting! We're getting into the meat of the stories; you'll even begin to see some of the effects of the stories happening simultaneously! So. . . look forward to future updates (now that I'm past all this exposition, they should come much quicker, too~), and I thank all my faithful readers for sticking it out this far! We're getting there, you won't be disappointed!**


	14. Chaos in Metro

**Author's Note: So. I'm trying to update quicker, you know the shtick. I have to thank all my readers for being so patient. . . Everything's all hectic right now, what with balancing school-related and personal drama. . . ugh. No fun, I assure you. I'd much rather be writing for you guys.**

**I think, though, now that it is summer I should be updating fairly quickly. I hope to have these two stories finished by September/October so I can start on my next project. There's only. . . maybe ten chapters left for both stories, so I only ask that you keep up the amazing patience you've been showing. You guys are the best!**

**Oh, and in case you were wondering, I changed the layout of the story a bit. I took out that one (kinda pointless) chapter. So. . . I hope it's not confusing that, instead of 15 chapters, the story will have 14. Again.**

**Alright, on to business.**

_A dangerous foe, a challenge arose,_

_A newfound threat keeps us on our toes._

_Unless contained, the terror grows,_

_This war is far from over._

There were figures. Several of them, though a few separated themselves from the rest of the group. The remaining group- there were four of them, mostly Pokemon- entered the city. They were easily noticeable. One in particular felt empty. . . like a massive echo in the Aura web. Something was amiss about this one.

Of course, their arrival meant one thing.

Ralts forced his way through the brush, rejoining the rest of us. He had been disappearing for hours at a time to a meadow nearby for the last couple of days. To meditate, he claimed. While he did that, Penny, Liekkau, and I set up a temporary resting place on a knoll overlooking a city larger than I could have ever imagined to be possible.

Metro.

"What's wrong, Ralts?" Liekkau asked, voice heavy with concern. Ralts looked directly at me, his arms folded.

_They are here, _he said._ Hurry, for timing is critical._

----------

We snuck in through the front gates of Metro at Ralts' discretion. He did not offer any explanation as to why we had to wait outside the city for three days before we entered it, but I figured he must have had some sort of plan. He always did.

Ralts led us deeper into the city, filing past hordes of busy commuters walking the streets and monstrous, almost futuristic-looking buildings. This city was incredibly impressive, even to those of us who had lived in big cities. Liekkau, on the other hand, was absolutely astounded, each step into the city sending an all-new wave of complete awe washing over her.

I was slightly uncomfortable by the sheer amount of people wandering the streets. Perhaps I was just paranoid, but I could have sworn I saw a whitecoat on every street corner. But I knew I had to be cautious, especially in a city with such an obvious Dark gang presence.

I noticed a large shadow growing beneath me; I looked up and saw that a towering pair of buildings was dawning on us fast. The two monstrous towers jutted up towards the sky, pointing opposite directions at slight angles. Walkways ran between the two buildings about every fifty feet, and halfway up a large neon sign hung: a curved eye with a human letter 'B' filling the space where the pupil would be.

"Don't tell me. . ." I groaned.

"Beyond Headquarters," Penny breathed. "There's no way we can get in." Ralts turned to the rest of us, looking serious. He folded his arms.

_Timing is critical_, he said again, glancing at each of us in a row. _I can get us into the building, but you must all follow me closely and do as I say if we are to accomplish our goal._

"And what would that be?" I asked, but Ralts shook his head. Great. More secrets. Whee.

_I can't spare details, but if all goes well, the Dark Gang and Beyond will be well on their way to destruction. _He glanced back down the line again, but this time his gaze lingered on me. _You must trust me, though. I have a plan._

Liekkau and Leo nodded; Penny hesitated, then nodded weakly. I stared at Ralts for a moment before conceding with a sigh. "Fine, fine. What do we do?"

_There is a human inside this building. A whitecoat, _Ralts said. I saw Penny tense beside me. _He will be the one to help us. However, we need to get into the building and get to him. That will be the difficult part._

"Who is this human?" Leo asked, his face incredulous.

"How is he going to help us?" Liekkau piped in.

Ralts shook his head again. _All will be made clear soon. Follow me._

Ralts lead us down one street, dodging between people's legs. He detoured down a few open paths and eventually coming, in a rather roundabout way, to the side of one of the Beyond building's spires. There was a side door, presumably for the people working in the building to get into, with a man in a gray uniform standing outside. He had the familiar electrified iron rod in a holster at his belt. Ralts began walking towards the door.

"Wait, you're joking, right?" I asked in disbelief, stepping in stride with Ralts. "You plan to just waltz in through a side entrance?"

_Your lack of faith is mildly disturbing,_ Ralts said, continuing to march straight up to the doorman. I stood back and shook my head, unsure of what Ralts planned to do.

"Wait's he up to?" Penny asked, sitting beside me. Much closer than usual. I blinked, wondering if she realized she was sitting so close our bodies were practically touching.

"No idea," I said, trying to keep my cool. But inside my heart was racing. I shook the feeling off, concentrating back on Ralts. The psychic had stopped just short of the doorman, who was looming over the small Pokemon, one hand on his iron rod. Neither of them moved for a very long time. I felt a strange feeling, almost like an invisible wave of heat traveling through the air, and suddenly the man stood up and walked over to the door. He punched a code into a panel beside the door and held it open to Ralts, even giving a slight bow.

_Come,_ Ralts said, gesturing to the building. My jaw had hit the ground in disbelief. I looked to Penny, who was watching the helpful doorman with a look of equal confusion. Leo brushed past us and followed Ralts into the building, followed closely by Liekkau, who still looked hesitant about the doorman and the towering structure she was about to enter.

Penny looked at me and shrugged, then stood and followed the group into the building. I stayed a moment longer, trying to work out what Ralts had done. Surely it was some trick! As I stood and followed Penny through the doorway, I glanced up at the guard. Sure enough, his eyes were blank with a slight purple glow about them. Bewitched by the psychic's power. I made a mental note not to get on Ralts' bad side.

----------

The inside of the Beyond building was just as impressive as the outside. We passed quickly through a long plain hallway, emerging into a massive hall. A desk of some sort sat square in the middle, with scientists buzzing around throughout the room.

And Pokemon, too. The reason we went largely unnoticed was because a few helper Pokemon roamed around the room, carrying messages or otherwise being of some use to the whitecoats. I watched some of them for a moment and wondered. Did they know what work their masters did? In fact, were their masters even aware of the damage they were doing?

The Pokemon all looked content, I noticed. Like they had no care in the world besides helping their respective masters. I figured the Beyond Pokemon couldn't _all_ be like Houndoom or Black Fang. It cheered me for some reason, knowing that our enemy had its normal people, too- they were as much Beyond's victims as Penny, or Liekkau, or Leo or I were.

_This way,_ Ralts said, gliding across the room to another door near the back. With a wave of his hand, the door quietly opened and Ralts slipped through, followed closely by the rest of us. He led us down a series of corridors, passing by whitecoats and, yes, more helper Pokemon.

"Where are we going?" Liekkau asked nervously, obviously uncomfortable about being around so many whitecoats. I couldn't blame her, not after all she had been though. I realized it must have taken everything she had to keep a straight face in here. She must have been terrified!

_An observation deck,_ Ralts said, apparently oblivious to the Flareon's discomfort. He brought us to another door and threw it open with a wave of his hand. A winding staircase was on the other side, going up and up until it disappeared from sight. _This way._

After several flights of stairs Ralts led us back out into the corridors. Something about this one gave me chills. . . the sterile white walls, the tiled floors? I pondered it for a while before it dawned on me.

"There's no one here," I breathed, turning towards Penny. She had noticed it, too. The hallways below had been bustling with life, but up on this floor we were the only things around. The sound of our footfalls echoed down the hall, sending another chill down my spine. It was far too quiet to be safe. Quiet is never a good thing.

_Hm,_ Ralts paused at a fork in the hallway, the path splitting in two directions. He crossed his arms in thought. Finally he pointed down the left branch. _I believe it is this way._ Penny looked as if she were about to say something, but kept her mouth shut.

Interesting.

_Shadow,_ Ralts said. Penny and Liekkau didn't react, so I guessed he was speaking only to me. _Correct. I have an important job for you._

_A job?_ Was I finally going to get some idea of what was going on here? All I knew was that Ralts was meeting someone here (a whitecoat, no less!), but that was it. I didn't know who this contact was, where we were going to meet him, or what we'd do from then.

_Yes, _Ralts said, _A very important one. See, we may encounter opposition up ahead. Beyond won't like that I'm meeting with this contact._

I frowned. More fighting? Fighting was the last thing I needed. . . especially since the Dark Gang Pokemon seemed to be getting more powerful. I wanted to avoid conflict as much as possible.

_Oh, but it is what you are good at,_ Ralts commented. I growled at him under my breath, but allowed him to continue. _Remember your aura training? How I taught you to manifest your aura?_

I nodded. How could I forget? The effect of the Black Blade was incredible. . . I was eager to learn more. But I was worried by Ralts' line of questioning. What did he expect me to do with so little training I've received?

_Your training is sufficient,_ Ralts grumbled curtly. _If we run into said opposition, I need you to conjure a powerful force. . . collect your aura energy into one, powerful blast._

I frowned and was about to object but Ralts halted in front of yet another door, opening it with yet another wave of his hand. Inside was dark except for wide windows that flooded light into the room. From what I could see, it was a rather cushy room: soft carpeting, a large leather sofa in the center of the room. For all intents and purposes, it almost appeared to be a living room. The only difference was the panel of computers and flashing lights set into the wall below the windows.

Ralts walked up to the panel, stepping up onto a small raised platform so he could peer out the window. _Observe._

We all followed suit, stepping up onto the platform and looking out the windows. The observation box overlooked a large, mostly empty room. A similar looking set of windows lined the wall. It must have been another observation room. Down inside the room a large stage, no more than a raised square platform, had a single rectangular table and several chairs scattered about, with two people standing on opposite sides of the table. One man and one woman, I noted, and the man was a whitecoat. He held a large canvas pack in one hand, waving the other hand enthusiastically. He appeared to be talking to the woman, but her back was to me and I could not see her reaction.

"Are they your contacts?" I asked Ralts, looking up. Penny was frowning down into the room, and Liekkau was gazing around through the window in wonder. Leo's face, as usual, was unreadable.

_One of them,_ Ralts said, not moving his gaze from the stage in the center of the room. _The man._

"Who is he?" Penny asked suddenly. She looked up at Ralts, her face frowning worriedly. "Who is the man in the white coat?"

Ralts chuckled. _Look familiar, Penny?_ He asked, though still looking out the window. Penny huffed.

"No. . . of course not." Penny turned back to the window, but her frown had deepened. Strange. I took a second look out the window. The man didn't seem familiar. . . but he was so far down, it was difficult to see any distinguishing features. I was about to raise Penny's question again, but I felt a shiver go down my spine, like I had felt out in the hallway. I felt a presence, like a pair of eyes watching us from behind.

_-What have we here?-_ An unfamiliar voice hissed. -_A couple of sneaky, naughty little rats-_ The voice cackled horribly, a sound like nails scratching a chalkboard. I turned and saw a small purple Pokemon, on its side as if lying down yet floating in the air above the door. It had large blue gems in place of its eyes, and it's very presence seemed to chill the air.

_Sableye_, Ralts droned, stepping down from the raised platform. _Surprised to see your sorry face still here._ The floating Pokemon, Sableye, cackled.

_-Same could be said to you, fool- _Sableye examined its nails lazily, resting its head on its other arm. -_Takes guts to come back here. Why've you returned?-_

"Ralts. . ." Liekkau murmured, worry edged in her voice. "Ralts, who is this?"

_-Didn't even tell them about me?-_ Sableye appeared to frown, despite its lack of a mouth. It floated gracefully to the ground, touching down on two feet. -_I'm hurt, Ralts. I thought I was more than that to you-_

_You're nothing to me, witch, _Ralts scoffed, crossing his arms. He gave a short, almost imperceptible glance at me. I nodded to show that I understood and closed my eyes, beginning to tap into my well of aura energy. _Now, enough with the pleasantries. We both know why you're here._

_-Oh, pooh- _Sableye gave a little sigh and a shrug. -_And here I was, so ready to catch up- _Sableye raised her hands up to eye level, palms out, and placed one over the other. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Ralts do the same.

"What are they doing?" I heard Liekkau ask from somewhere beside me. I was concentrating on my aura so much that her voice sounded distant, as if she were speaking from down a long hallway.

"An aura duel," Penny whispered. I opened my eyes wide in wonder. An aura duel? It sounded interesting! I watched Ralts and Sableye, but they made no movements other than the occasional twitch or grunt. They stood in one spot, arms raised and hand aimed at the other, unmoving. I could only imagine what was going on with their invisible auras. "Best to stay out of their way, Liekkau."

I shut my eyes again and reached out into the room, scanning for signs of the aura duel. Almost instantly I was blinded by two incredible lights: one purple forming a haze in the shape of Ralts and a deep crimson color standing across from him. Between them, the two lights were waging a war, pushing against each other, trying to get past. Every so often a tendril of one color would make it near the opponent, only to be destroyed by the other's aura. It was fascinating watching them, until I realized I was straying from my task. Taking a deep breath, I went back to my work.

_-You're weak, Braig- _Sableye chuckled. -_Getting too old for this?-_

Ralts laughed as well. _Too old? For you? Never. _The two opposing auras clashed together with a deafening _CRASH!_ Ralts grunted. _You were always foolish, Noai. Strong and ambitious, but foolish._

_-The dead fool lies, the fool lies dead- _Sableye chanted in a singsong voice. She cackled. -_And your teammates are next!-_

Ralts faltered a bit, taking a step back. He bolstered himself in place, forcing his aura forward a few inches. _You think you can win, Noai? You think you're strong? This is exactly why I left this place!_

_-While you were gone, I have grown stronger. I no longer had someone holding me down-_

_I will _always_ be the master, and you the apprentice!_

Sableye chuckled. -_Times change-_ She grinned widely and pushed forward with her aura, completely extinguishing Ralts' barrier and engulfing the telepath in blood-colored light. Ralts howled in pain. -_I've waited so long for the chance to kill you, Braig. Welcome home. . .-_

"Stop!" I shouted, jumping between Ralts and Sableye, cutting off the ghost's beam of aura. I heard Ralts slump to the floor with a groan behind me. "You'll have to go through me first."

Sableye cackled. -_Please, child. Do yourself a favor and move before I have to hurt you- _I snarled at her, imagining in my mind the same sword as before, cloaked in shadow. I pictured the weapon singing through the air, splitting the ghost Pokemon clean down the middle. The familiar buzzing in the back of my head returned. I grinned.

"Black Blade!" I shouted, unleashing the aura. A crescent-shaped ripple of black aura shot from my body, colliding into Sableye and sent it crashing to the floor. I chuckled, drawing up more aura in preparation. "Still want more?"

Instead of the reaction I expected, Sableye laughed. Hard. For several minutes she rolled across the floor, arms wrapped tight around her chest, laughing hysterically. When she finished, she sat up, wiping an imaginary tear from her crystalline eye. -_You had it in you to teach _another_ apprentice?-_ Sableye chuckled, pointing an accusing finger at Ralts. -_You're full of surprises, aren't you?-_

"I'm more than enough to take you down," I said in a tone which I hoped sounded threatening. It only made the ghost Pokemon laugh harder.

_-This is too good!-_ Sableye said between bouts of laughter. -_Let me guess: he's told you about some sort of failsafe attack, a gathering of all your aura together and to release it in its fever pitch?- _I froze in place, stunned. How had she known about Ralt's last resort? Could she read my attack as I started charging my aura? Sableye cackled irritatingly once more. -_He did, he did! To believe he would pull something so low!-_

I frowned. I looked at Ralts over my shoulder, then back to Sableye. "Pull something? Pull what?"

Sableye sighed. -_Foolish boy. With all the control you have over your aura, you'd create a reaction far too large to be tamed-_

Ralts tapped my shoulder weakly. _Don't believe a word she says. She's the enemy._

I shushed him angrily and turned back to Sableye. "So what? I assume you think you know what you are talking about." The ghost nodded.

_-He's _using_ you, foolish boy-_ Sableye sighed and rubbed her face in her palm. -_An explosion like that would destroy me, it would destroy you. . . hell, it would bring the whole damned building down!-_

"But. . ." I turned to Ralts, who had turned away. That confirmed it. I looked to Liekkau and Penny, but they seemed equally at loss for a reaction as I did. So I returned my gaze to Ralts. "But why? Why would you do that?"

_-Revenge-_ Sableye hissed. -_He wanted so much to take us down. . . he would have sacrificed you all in the process-_

"Is that it, Ralts?" I asked angrily. The psychic didn't move. I sighed and turned back to Liekkau, Penny, and Leo, each looking just as mad and abused as I felt.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. -_Your worth is much more than you could possibly imagine. You power is nearly limitless. . . user of the black aura- _Sableye seemed to whisper soothingly, appearing behind me. -_You deserve better. . . come, join us. We are what is best for you-_

I laughed humorlessly, turning to face the ghost. "Not bloody likely." I flashed her a grin as the buzzing in my head grew louder, and I could actually see bolts of black crackling around my body. The whole time I had been continuing to charge my aura. She said I could not control it. . . but I would prove her wrong. "Penny, Liekkau, Leo! Take Ralts and get out! I'll join you in a moment."

Penny took the hint and, with the help of Leo, scooped Ralts up onto her back, bounding for the door. Liekkau paused, looking at me, her face wide with fear. "Shadow. . ."

"Just go!" I shouted, the aura energy becoming hard to contain. A loud red light suddenly started flashing, blaring a loud siren throughout the halls. An alarm! "I'll be okay, just get out!" Liekkau hesitated a moment more, then followed Penny and the linoone out the door.

_-No!-_ Sableye cried, shooting towards the doorway. I darted in front of her, planting my feet and baring my teeth.

"This is what we came for," I struggled to say. The aura energy was growing so immensely. . . it was difficult to hold it in any longer! "This is what we're gonna do."

_-You're a fool-_

I chuckled again. "Maybe." I concentrated the aura into one, single orb of raging energy. The black was crackling around me, begging to be let out. I imagined releasing it, creating an explosion of incredible proportions. I knew I had to contain it, but I wasn't entirely sure how. I would just have to wing it.

The aura was reaching a fever pitch. Sableye's eye were wide, darting back and forth looking for an alternative escape. I squeezed my eyes tight, now needing to force the aura down with all my willpower. It was time to let it go. "Black. . . Bomb!"

The reaction was instantaneous, it is was BIG. An enormous flash of black light and a deafening roar of the explosion blew out the entire wall overlooking the large room, sending debris and glass raining down. It blew out all the lights, destroyed all the plush furniture and computer panels, sent the door flying off its hinges. . . but it didn't stop there. The explosion sent shockwaves of black energy rippling through out the rest of the building, shaking the entire structure to its core. And just as the torrent of aura reached its peak, I abruptly stopped the flow of the energy, cutting off the reaction.

When all the noise died down, my ears were ringing. I slowly opened my eyes to observe the damage. There was a large hole in the wall were walls had once been. The room was totally destroyed, the destruction seemed to have spread to other rooms, as well. Sableye was nowhere to be seen, probably teleported away at the last second.

I stepped outside, gauging the destruction. The alarm was still blaring. I followed the hallway down to where the first staircase was, where I found Penny, Leo and Liekkau. The flareon's eyes were wide with fear.

"Shadow. . . was that _you_?" She asked slowly, her voice almost unheard over the loud sirens. I nodded weakly, hanging my head. Leo whistled. I dared a look at Penny; she was just watching me angrily.

"Shadow, you could have gotten yourself killed!" She scolded, frowning at me. I winced, realizing how much danger I had put everyone, including myself, in. "That was completely reckless. What were you _thinking_?"

I sighed, feeling unable to give a proper response. I felt weaker and weaker with each passing moment, and nausea was beginning to kick in. "Please. . . can we do this later? After we're out of here?"

Penny stared at me for a moment, then conceded. "Fine. But this isn't over." She climbed through the doorway to the staircase (which appeared to have been bent in half in the explosion). The rest of us followed her.

We made our way slowly, cautiously through the hallways, though we knew no one was going to stop us, especially not now. The whitecoats were running around in a panic, either trying to escape of to size up the amount of damage to the building. Penny stopped before we reached the large first room.

"This way will be faster," she muttered, taking us down a different hall. Leo followed after her unquestioningly, but Liekkau and I watched her in surprise before shrugging and following her anyways. Penny, strangely enough, seemed to know the layout of the building very well. Her path took us down a few more hallways, eventually coming to another door with a Pokemon-accessible flap installed into it. Penny set down Ralts and slid him through first, then crawled through herself. Leo looked back at me then followed her.

"Shadow. . ." Liekkau murmured, turning to me. There were tears in her eyes. "Shadow, please. . . never do something like that again! I don't know what I would do if. . ." She sniffed, turning her face away from me. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Hey, hey," I said softly, lifting her chin with a paw. The poor girl was distraught, her eyes red and wide with worry. "I'm sorry, Liekkau. . . I promise not to take risks like that again, okay?" Liekkau just watched me for a moment, then leaned forward and pressed her mouth to mine.

The kiss was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. Penny had kissed me briefly once before, but that was nothing compared to this. My eyes went wide with shock initially, but eventually I closed them, enjoying the tender contact. A hundred thousand nerve endings cried in pure bliss. For that moment, the Dark Gang was behind me, and everything felt. . . right. Like I knew everything was going to be okay.

Slowly, reluctantly, we broke away. I would have been content to stand there, locked in an embrace forever, but I knew we had to leave this place. Liekkau gave me a small smile. "_Seuraan sydäntäin._"

I nodded at her as she crawled out through the door, guilt suddenly raging inside me. I loved Penny, didn't I? How could I stand here and. . . kiss Liekkau? And the part that really struck me was. . . well, I _liked_ it. I groaned. The last thing I needed were more complications.

I crawled through the Poke-door, stepping outside. The sun was just setting over the horizon, casting shadows over the city. We were all here. We made it out of the Dark Gang building in one piece. We were safe.

For now.

"How did you know the way out?" Leo asked, looking at Penny. Penny had Ralts on her back once again. The telepath looked worse for the wear, his breath quick and ragged. We had to get him some help, now.

"That's not important now," Penny said quickly, rolling her shoulders to adjust Ralts' position. She was intentionally avoiding the question, of course, but I knew she was right. We had to see to Ralts first. I would question her about the it later.

"We need to go," I said, stepping up to the position of leader despite my exhaustion. I knew we just had to get out of the city. "C'mon, we can look after Ralts as soon as we're out of this crazy city."

I tried to retrace our steps back through the city, but I still needed a little help from Penny's directions. As we got further from the Dark Gang building, we could really see the amount of damage I had done to it. Entire floors had holes blown from them, and practically every window in the building was cracked or gone. The alarm was still blaring, and people were still rushing from the building.

"Well, _that _went well," Leo remarked sarcastically. I sighed. So much had happened in that building, it was hard to think straight. A betrayal, a newfound power, and new, confusing feelings. And we weren't done yet. Not even close.

"We did as much as we could, considering," I said, but purpose choosing to avoid finishing with 'considering we were almost killed for some crazy revenge scheme'. I'd have a talk with Ralts about that later. All in all, Metro was eventful. And I was certain I never wanted to return here again. We were in deep in this conflict with the Dark Gang, too deep in to do anything but go with the flow and hope we come out all right. I looked from Leo, unreadable as ever, to Liekkau, blushing and wearing a tiny smile, then to Penny and the unconscious Ralts, who had obviously both known more than they let on.

I sighed. There was a lot of explaining to do.

**A/N: So, a long chapter this time to make up for the update inconsistencies. But, like I said before they will be much more frequent.**

**For real. I mean it. **

**In any case, this was a very fun chapter to write! A lot going on. . . Just hope it wasn't too muddled at some parts. So, hope you enjoyed it! And have a god summer, everyone!**


	15. Nightmares

**Author's Note: Heya, guys. Sorry about the slightly longer delay than usual. I've been a bit preoccupied recently with another author, Tertiari. For those of you -well, probably most of you- who aren't aware, this author has plagiarized one of my works on this same website, and I've been spending a good part of the last month trying to sort things out with him.**

**Needless to say, everything's all taken care of, and a big thanks goes out to those of you who helped me out during that time! It was just what I needed to help get through it all with my sanity intact.**

**So, without further ado, enjoy.**

_Out of the pan, into the flame,_

_Caught forever in their twisted game._

_In fear they assure, to all the same,_

_Even the strong will fall someday._

We were careful to avoid any unnecessary contact with humans on the way out, but the extra level of caution was pointless. It seemed my attack on the building caused a large-scale panic throughout the city, but with an alarm that loud, why wouldn't it? In any case, I carried Ralts on my back as Penny guided Leo, Liekkau, and I back through the city, taking side roads and less populated trails. We ducked through the city's gates, which had been closed down and inaccessible to a long line of travelers gathered outside, and out into the outskirts of the town.

At last we came to the same field Ralts had stationed us at for days until just hours before. I set him carefully on the ground, laying him on his back beneath a small apple tree.

"Out cold," I reported, pressing my ear to the psychic's chest. His breathing was ragged and his heartbeat was faint, but it was there. I'm not sure what damage he had taken in that Aura battle, but it had taken a huge toll on him. The aftermath of the whole thing had affected all of us. My ears were still ringing from being so close to the Aura explosion.

"Now what are we going to do?" Leo asked the question on everyone's minds. I took a look around the clearing. It was nice and open, about one hundred and fifty yards from Metro's gates, so it was far away enough from the humans. There was a nice apple tree as well as plenty of land to go foraging, and we could get water from a nearby creek.

"I think we should settle down here for now. Until we can determine Ralts' situation." Everyone was silent, quietly loathing the psychic. He would have sacrificed all our lives for the sake of revenge, and now I was asking the impossible: to halt our journey to help him. But I knew it was the right thing to do, and I was sure they all did, too. So, grudgingly, we all set to the task of setting up camp.

I use the term 'camp' loosely. It was a normal process, no different than any other stops we made: Leo climbed the apple tree and knocked down some fruit and cut down a few branches for Liekkau to make a fire, as was necessary for sleeping out in the open. Penny and I went foraging for food out in the clearing, looking for small Pokemon to bring back to the others.

Even though it was a necessary and sometimes dangerous task, I still had fun hunting with Penny. I grew up in the city with Isabel my entire life, so Penny had to teach me how to catch things for myself, but between the two of us we worked out a method. Penny would bait out small birds and creatures by increasing the glow of her rings while I hid in the grass nearby. As the Pokemon drew closer, I would pounce and kill it quickly. It was effective, and in this case it was a win-win situation: it took my mind of Ralts' betrayal and allowed me to spend more time with Penny.

But not even that could distract me from one, nagging thought. I kissed Liekkau. Liekkau kissed me. We _kissed_, and it was an incredible feeling. But I knew that I didn't love Liekkau. And now I even questioned if I truly loved Penny. I obviously had feelings for her, but. . . was it really love? It was impossible to tell.

We returned to the camp as it began getting dark, sitting around the warm blaze Liekkau had tended. As we ate, I watched Ralts lay silently beneath the tree. He almost appeared to be sleeping, he looked so peaceful. The extent of the damage on the psychic's body was truly impossible to tell.

"Now what's going to happen?" Liekkau broke the silence, resting her head on her forepaws. We all exchanged glances, the same thought on our minds. We had all been traveling under Ralts' guidance. . . with him incapacitated, we didn't know what our next step to take was.

"We could either stay here until Ralts' condition improves," I said, thinking aloud. "Or we can take the next step and see where the road takes us."

"Sounds promising," Leo groaned. He curled up into a ball, facing away from the fire. "Wake me up when you've decided how to kill us all."

I scowled. "What makes you so sure?"

Leo lifted his head, offered a small, knowing smirk. "We stay here, the Dark Gang folk are bound to find us. If we wander off randomly, we'll either get killed or the Dark Gang folk could still find us." He yawned and rested his head. "They seem to be good at that."

"Do you have any better ideas?"

"Oh no, no, no," Leo shook his head. "Don't mind me. You're in charge after all."

We were all silent after that. But who was to say he wasn't right? What if the whitecoats or even the Dark Gang themselves were after us at this very moment? If we were captured, could I live with that weight on my mind? The Gang was trying to catch me, after all, and it was not going to get any easier from here out.

Liekkau's yawn broke the silence. "I'm going to sleep, too. 'Night, Penny. . . good night, Shadow." She turned and winked at me, a coy smile reflected in the dim firelight. I frowned. Ever since our little kiss at the Beyond HQ, she had been acting different. Flirty, almost, and definitely sticking closer to me. She was deeply affected by the kiss. . . almost as much as it filled me with concern.

I looked over at Penny, the flames casting shadows over the subtle shapes of her face. She was staring solemnly into the fire, not saying a word, not moving. I rarely had chances to appreciate her beauty like this. And she was beautiful, to be sure. That was the problem, though. . . to what extent did my feelings for her go? The kiss with Liekkau had tugged at my heartstrings, but moments like now when I was alone with Penny simply set my soul ablaze.

"Shadow?" Penny was looking at me, frowning and brow furrowed, cloaking half her face in shadow. I blinked, slowly realizing that I had been staring again. I gave her an apologetic grin.

"Sorry, Penny. Just. . . Thinking."

"About what?"

The question had caught me off guard. Normally she would never inquire further. I paused, mouth hanging open like an idiot while my mind raced to figure out what I was thinking about. It wasn't about food, or the bonfire. . . I was pretty sure it wasn't about Ralts or the Dark Gang, so what was it. . . oh! Penny!

"Just about you," I blurted out, inwardly slapping myself afterwards. I awaited the inevitable verbal lashing from her, but none ever came. I cautiously cracked my eyes open; Penny was just watching me, head cocked slightly. She nodded.

"I see." And like that, she turned back to the fire and it was over. I was still reeling, staring dumbly at my paws. Was she softening up? It wasn't much, for sure, but it was better than nothing. I took a deep breath, knowing this could easily be my last chance for her to open up.

"Specifically, I have a question for you, Penny." I shrugged when she gave me a look. "I just want to know a bit about you, Penny. We've been traveling so long, but sometimes I feel I hardly know anything about you."

Penny sighed, but reluctantly nodded. "I suppose I owe you _that_ much. What do you want to know?"

I thought for a moment. I wanted to get to know her better, but I knew if I delved too deep she would outright refuse to answer. Something easy, then. Simple.

"Why. . . were you in Darsteel?" I finally decided on. A harmless question, really, but I figured I might found out a little bit about her. When I looked back, though, Penny was frowning. "When we met, that is. That's where we met."

"I know," she snapped. "I know, I just. . ." She paused, seemed to think it over.

"Penny?"

She turned to me, the firelight flickering gently in soft eyes. "Alright, Shadow. Alright." She took a deep breath, let it out, looked up at the sky. Finally, she leveled her gaze with mine once again. "I was there because of my master."

"Your master?" I wasn't aware that Penny had had a master.

"Yeah, he brought me along with him. He worked there, in Darsteel."

"Where did he work?"

Penny's gaze wavered just for a split second, so fast I thought I'd imagined it. She paused for several moments, brows drawn together in some internal conflict. "It was. . . Beyond."

"What!?" I thought I hadn't heard her correctly. Surely she had said something else! I struggled desperately to gather my thoughts, to say something intelligent, but all that came out was a strangled gasp.

"He was. . . _is_ a scientist." She frowned, purposely looking away, at the ground. "A whitecoat."

"Penny. . ." I groaned. "Penny, it would have been nice to have known this earlier, don't you think? I mean. . . a _whitecoat_?"

"He's different, Shadow!" She growled, giving me a look. She turned back to the fire. "He's different. . . he really, truly cares." I tried with difficulty to come up with something to say, but nothing seemed right. She was adamant about her master being different. She must have cared about him very much to defend him so fervently.

"So what happened?"

"Hm?"

"Your master," I stretched out my sore legs and moved closer to her, sitting down at her side. I smiled when she looked at me, but her face was entirely foreign, a look I'd never seen before. Sadness, maybe, with an obvious look of nostalgia in her eyes. "You weren't with him when we found you. Did something happen to him?"

Penny shook her head slowly. The meagre fire was beginning to die, its last embers flickering with life. A fitting metaphor to the situation, I realized with grim countenance. I couldn't shake a nasty feeling in my gut, like my questions were going to reveal more than I had bargained for.

"What happened, Penny?" I pressed. If it was about the Dark Gang, or the whitecoats, or anything that could help me get a clue. . .

Penny was gazing at the fire now, watching the flame slowly burn itself out. She shook her head. "Nothing happened." She sighed. "I ran away. Simple as that."

"Ran away?" I raised my brows. "Why'd you run away?"

"I had my reasons." I expected more, but a chilling silence pervaded the air. I shifted uncomfortably, waiting for her to continue. Somewhere behind us a twig snapped, and a swarm of cricketing chirped softly. A gentle breeze kissed the trees and rustled my fur. It was a perfect night and should have been calming, but I was feeling terribly anxious.

"What were they?" I asked, figuring she wouldn't tell me of her own accord. She was silent. "Penny, you don't realize how important this could-"

"I've got a question for you, Shadow." Penny was looking back at me, all trace of softness gone from her eyes. They had changed, hard and black, looking for all intents and purposes lifeless. "Am I somehow different? I am worse now, for having a scientist as a master?"

I blinked. "N-no! Of course not!" I fumbled over my own tongue, clawing desperately for a way to fix this. "You have to understand, Penny, I need to know more about the whitecoats! I need a clue, a clue is all I'm asking for!"

Penny stared at me a moment, long and hard. "I'm going to bed," she growled, curling up facing away from me. The wind blew and the last glowing embers of the fire were snuffed out with a sharp hiss. I felt a terrible feeling of emptiness just then, sinking deep in my chest and spreading its fire like a burning coal. I wondered if Penny was angry at me. I wondered if I could fix it.

I sighed and curled up by the edge of the fire pit, but I knew no sleep would come.

----------

When I finally closed my eyes I was graced by a nightmare.

When I looked around, there was a wide, empty expanse of nothingness. A long fissure ran across splitting the scene right down the middle. I sat on a small plateau overlooking a dry, cracked landscape devoid of life. Another plateau overlooked a bountiful, verdant field opposite me on the other side of the fissure.

There was a lone figure sitting on the other plateau, just close enough for me to make out small details. The figure was thin and slight, and hunched as if weighed down by some heavy force. It looked all worse for the wear. It was dark blue, with frilled white fins on its head and neck, and a long fishlike tail hung limp at its side. I realized with a growing sense of dread who the figure was.

My mother. I knew no other vaporeons. My dread soon evaporated into blinding anger towards her, the woman that had given birth to me. Who was supposed to watch out for me like a parent should. I was about to call out to her when she looked up at me, eyes wide and vulnerable.

"Sh. . . Shadow?" she asked, taking a step closer. Her face was unreadable, her expression trapped somewhere between curiosity and sadness, pain and relief. I tried to call out to her, but I was at a loss for words. I couldn't possibly commit what I was feeling into words. So I just stared.

My mother suddenly turned away from me, and at the same time I felt a presence behind me. I turned slowly and saw that Penny and Liekkau were laying behind me, eyes closed, breathing softly. Both had a strange light projecting from their bodies, curling like smoke and apparently flickering with black lines. Studying these lights, I found that in each there was a series of quick-moving pictures.

In Liekkau's, the images seemed to tell a story: A small, cozy village in the mountains. There were images of brown-skinned people all around the village, going about chores, young ones playing in the grass, some had Pokemon by their sides. More images showed prosperous fields, clean water, more happy villagers.

Then there was a strange image, one of Liekkau. She was in the village, standing in front of a smiling old couple. Liekkau was also grinning broadly, and she looked very healthy. Her fur was bright and her eyes seemed to sparkle. The strange part of it, though, was that her stomach seemed to be extended and rounded slightly, as if she were--

"Pregnant," I breathed. Then the image was gone.

There were more of the same, though. Liekkau in the village, Liekkau and the elderly couple, Liekkau playing with a young child, and in each one she was bright and full of smiles. She was truly happy, for sure. I was beginning to wonder the point of these images when I appeared in the next one.

It was another simple image in the village. It appeared to be inside one of the village's many shacks, and almost appeared to be a photograph. It was just Liekkau and I, smiling for some unknown cameraman, sitting side by side. It was strange to see myself look- and this seemed incredibly self-serving, but it was true- so good. My eyes gleamed with my smile and my rings glowed merrily in the dim light.

There were more after that. A lot more. Liekkau and I in the village. Liekkau and I overlooking a lake at sunset. Liekkau blushing as I licked her cheek affectionately. Liekkau and I asleep, laying side by side. Liekkau and I surrounded by a small group of young eevee.

I frowned as the images cycled on. They all had a common factor: Liekkau and I, in this strange village, and. . . we were happy. I couldn't be certain of what this all implied, if it meant anything at all. I was still pondering this when the last the images cycled by, each one lingering a moment longer than the rest of the images. I gasped.

The first image was so strange, I almost thought I imagined it. It showed the planet-- which I only recognized because Sam had shown me his globe before-- in flames. Literally the entire world was simply on fire. Before I had realized what I was seeing, the next imaged appeared. It showed a desolate city, the roads all but completely destroyed, the buildings gutted and dilapidated. Clouds of dust blew through the air, obscuring the view of familiar palm trees and a long since dried-up ocean. I recognized this place.

It was Sunpalm. More accurately, the image showed the area around Sam and Isabel's house. The image showed no signs of life, no people, no Pokemon, no plants. Nothing. Everything seemed to have just been. . . destroyed. The very last image cycled, and held in place for a long time, giving me time to take it in. It was another city, but I recognized it immediately this time. After all, I had just been inside the very same city just hours ago.

Metro was in ruins. The shiny silver buildings were torn to sharp metal pieces, some were burning, casting thick black smoke into the sky. The streets were completely deserted, the roads torn up, great fissures dividing the earth. All vegetation was gone completely, the ground was brown and dry. But one thing stood out in the utter destruction and made me gasp. A single building stood, looking as pristine and undamaged as the day it had been built.

The Beyond building stood tall over the destruction, its long shadow lingering over the city. It was an unwelcome beacon in the dark. As soon as I saw it, I knew: they had caused this. All this destruction was from Beyond and the Dark Gang. I knew I had to stop them now more than ever.

My attention was then drawn to Penny, whose light had begun to flicker with similar images. There was no village full of happy people, though. Instead I saw various location that I did not recognize: a large white city overlooking a wide bay, a snowy city high in the mountains, an enormous black building surrounded by strange, dense trees I did not recognize. None of these places seemed to relate like they had in Liekkau's pictures. A small town in the shadow of a tall mountain, the top of a towering building, a long, train like vehicle riding along a single rail. . . what did this all mean? What did it have to do with Penny?

My answer came soon after. The very next image showed Penny, smiling back over her shoulder. She stood on that beautiful spot overlooking the ocean I had found outside Darsteel. It seemed like it was so long ago that we were there. . . and I had made my promise. "Together forever", I had said. Turns out that promise may be harder to keep than I had anticipated.

As the images continued, my heart sunk. They did nothing to lighten my spirit like Liekkau's had. Penny and I struggling our way up a rough, snowy hill. Penny and I escaping from a burning village, chased by an unseen foe. Penny and I fighting a monstrous yellow creature. Penny laying beside me, my eyes clenched tight in pain. Penny and I on the floor, blood pooling around us, eyes closed. . .

I frowned as the images flashed by. It was almost as if they were showing the opposite of Liekkau's images. It was disconcerting, to say the least. When it came around the time that Liekkau's last three images appeared, I braced myself for the worst. If Liekkau's pictures of the world had been horrific, how bad would Penny's be?

I did not expect what I say. The first image was of the planet once again, but instead of burning it looked. . . healthy. The continents were verdant with green, the water was beautiful blue. Everything about it just seemed. . . right. Like the whole earth was at peace with itself. It was nice.

The image of Sunplam was different, as well. Isabel stood on her front porch, a blue creature and an orange dog sitting at her side. My mother and her mate. The city looked better than ever, with its trees swaying in a gentle breeze that stirred in the ocean as well. The sun shone brightly down in the city, casting it in a warm glow. It was lovely, and serene. It was peaceful.

The best image of them all was Metro. It was a bustling utopia, with people crowding the streets, building or selling goods or just taking a walk. The silver buildings shone in the bright sunlight, reflecting a glare back into the sky. Everything was as nice as when we had been there just a few hours earlier; nicer, even. There was one, big noticeable difference, though.

The Beyond building was gone. Completely disappeared. The place where it had stood housed an open park, people and Pokemon wandering about lazily. It was all beautiful and wonderful and perfect. But it made me wonder once more what this all had to do with Penny.

_This is the one?_ The voice came from behind me, one that I didn't recognize.

_That's him, Riane._ The second voice I identified as Ralts'. I turned to race the new arrivals: Ralts was standing beside a blue Pokemon standing back on two black legs. It had long black ears and arms, and its chest was covered with yellow fur. Short metal spikes poked out from the back of its hands and the center of its chest. It was standing with its arms crossed, sizing me up.

_Wielder of the black aura? _The other Pokemon scoffed. _He doesn't even know the first thing about his power._

I was going to open my mouth to argue, but I was silenced by Ralts waving a hand. _This is why I pass him over to you, Riane. _Ralts looked at me for a moment, then back to the blue Pokemon. _He is ready. I trust you._

The blue Pokemon snorted once more and rolled its eyes, then everything went dark.

When I opened my eyes, I was graced with blinding light of all colors. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust, but I soon saw that the light came from all around me. I gave a gasp.

The fire had long since gone out, but the light I saw was a hundred times more incredible. All around me, each of my companions was ablaze with dazzling light. Directly to my left was Liekkau, a deep blue glow enveloping her and shifting slightly with the movement of her breathing. Across from me were Leo and Ralts, wreathed in a familiar lime-colored veil and a harsh purple one, respectively. And beside me was Penny, surrounded by a halo of soft white light, giving her the appearance of an angel as she slept. It didn't take me long to figure out what I was seeing.

Aura. But I hadn't invoked my power, had I? I blinked hard, but the Aura light remained.

A muffled cough drew my attention away from the fire. I looked past the sleeping forms of my companions and saw Ralts stirring slightly beneath the tree. Cautiously I stood up and crossed over to him, stopping just beside him. His dark purple aura billowed around him, its edges appearing to be ragged and torn. He coughed once more.

"Ralts?"

_Hm?_ Ralts stirred a bit more, enough to sit up on his elbows. He looked up at me. _Ah, Shadow. I'm glad you've come._

I frowned at the psychic. "You should be resting, Ralts. We still haven't figured out how injured you were in that aura duel." Ralts chuckled, a laugh that became a spluttering cough.

_That's why I'm glad you're here, Shadow._ He paused a moment, and I suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of dread. I felt something was wrong. Something bad was going to happen.

"Ralts?" I asked hesitantly.

_Shadow, you need to leave tomorrow morning. _Ralts said, placing a hand on my leg. _You need to go north and get as far from this city as you can._

"But what about you?" I protested.

_You won't have to worry about me,_ Ralts chuckled again. _I'm dying, Shadow. That aura duel was my last. I don't have any energy left._

I felt my eyes widen. "What!?" I couldn't believe this was happening. . . There was no way! "Y-you can't die, Ralts! We need you here, with us!"

Ralts' aura seemed to burn brighter for a couple of seconds. A smile. _Need me for what? I'm ashamed, Shadow. . . my job was to teach you, and I was blinded by my own desire for revenge. _He took a deep breath. _So now I must pass you onto another._

I thought about the blue Pokemon. "Another? Who is it, and where?"

_That is why you must go north, Shadow._ Ralts sighed, laying back once more. _You will find him. The Aura shall lead you there._

I sighed. "I think I deserve to know what's going on, Ralts. Tell me."

There was an uncomfortable silence for a few seconds. I was almost afraid that Ralts had passed on, but I could still see his aura burning. After a long moment, he sighed.

_You're your mother's son, all right._ Ralts took a deep breath, turning his gaze to me. _Alright, Shadow. I'll tell you as much as I can, but you must promise to seek my next contact out._

I nodded. "I promise, Ralts." I heard Ralts sigh in relief, his aura dimmed a bit. "Now, who is Beyond, and what do they want with me?"

_Beyond is an organization of human scientists. . . they are researchers, looking for a way to better the connection between human and Pokemon._ Ralts coughed and was still for a moment before continuing. _Recently they discovered the power of the Aura. . . And they seek to harness it. _He turned to me, placing a hand on my leg once more. _Through you, Shadow._

"Me?"

_Yes, Shadow. Because of the circumstances of your birth, you have what is known as the world's first Black Aura. _

I shook my head, still not understanding. "But why do they want me? Or my aura?"

_Your aura is unique, Shadow. Because of your birth, your aura has a great presence in the Aura Web. _He chuckled softly. He must have noticed the look of confusion on my face. _Your aura has the power to greatly affect every other being connected to the Web, if you learn to harness it. _He took a deep breath. _Beyond wants that power. With your Aura. . . they can take control of the Aura Web, and by connection every being connected to it._

It took me a moment to process this. "I. . . have that sort of power?" It was unreal. There was no way I could possibly be as pivotal as Ralts insisted. "I can effect the _whole_ Aura Web?"

_If you train properly, yes. But do not go into your training with that goal in mind. Power always ends in corruption, Shadow. Remember that._

I had to sit down. It was all too much. "Where does that leave you, Ralts? Who are you in all this?"

I felt his aura brighten with another smile. _I, too, was involved with Beyond's search into the depths of aura. Long before they felt the corruption of power._

"Before?"

Ralts nodded. _They were not always evil. Beyond began with good intentions, to help mankind. Now all they wish for is a means to control all Pokemon._

"And now. . . they'll be after me?" Ralts nodded weakly. "What do I do, then? I can't fend them off forever!"

_Find my contact. He will train you to control your aura, and ultimately. . . Defeat Beyond._

I nodded. "Alright. . . alright, I'll do it."

_Beyond has been searching for a long time, Shadow. They will have more methods than one. _Ralts gave a shuddering breath. _Do not underestimate their power, Shadow. You possess great potential, but you can still be overwhelmed._

"I'll be careful, Ralts," I said, smiling sadly. I began to back off when Ralts raised a hand.

_Wait, Shadow. One last thing. _he gestured for me to come closer. I obliged. _Be careful around the females. The umbreon and the flareon. . . there are consequences in both of them._

I nodded, feeling tears come to my eyes. Was I sad because Ralts was dying, or was it his own aura's effect on me? Or was it just the knowledge that from here out, we were all alone? It was scary, to be sure. . . and now I was losing my first mentor. I sniffed. I felt Ralts' aura smiling once more.

_Do not be sad, Shadow. I have lived a long life. . . and this has been coming for a long while. It's time I stopped running and planning. I must stand here now and accept fate._

I watched as Ralts gave one last, spluttering cough, as his aura slowly faded until I felt its warmth disappear, like a candle being blown out. I watched helplessly as my mentor died. I was in charge now, and I knew now this mission was more important than ever before.

I could not fail.


	16. Tentative Steps

**Author's Note: As part of my 2nd Anniversary/Christmas/New Year Celebration on , I've been hard at work to assure I could update all my stories on the same day! (Even though I'm a bit late for it. . ah, well _)**

**Phew, am I ever exhausted. But it was worth it to make all my readers happy! Enjoy!**

**Ah, and one last thing, ye readers: though this story will not ever contain explicit material, this chapter contains bits later on that may otherwise be considered mature. You've been warned.**

_Love and loss: a cruel endeavor,_

_With a broken heart to mend;_

_It seems we'll march forever,_

_On and on to our dark end._

At the break of dawn, the sun just barely peeking over the horizon to begin its arduous ascent into the sky, when the early birds were just waking and the entropic cool of the night had not yet left us, we gave Ralts a proper burial.

I helped Leo to dig the grave, a quick, shallow hole beneath the same tree in which Ralts had died. In my gut I sensed he would have liked it, being buried beneath the quiet serenity and the shade of the tree would have suited him. Or maybe he had said somewhere along the way that he enjoyed apples. I did not know.

Regardless, we dug Ralts' final resting place and carefully lay him down inside, arms crossed peacefully over his chest. Everyone was clearly sad, but Liekkau was the only one who openly cried for the telepath. Though I shed no tears for him, the loss of my mentor hit me hard like a stone. I had only known the psychic Pokemon for a short while, but I knew him well and he helped my develop my powers, for better or for worse. We said a few kind words in his memory, but we knew we had to leave.

From our clearing, we could see that the commotion in Metro was dying down. The alarms no longer pierced the air, and everything seemed to have settled into a semblance of normality in the city. Ralts had spoken of going north to meet with the blue Pokemon from my dream, in order to continue my Aura training. And while the whole situation was not entirely clear, I trusted the psychic: if he said my best interest was in meeting this mysterious new Pokemon, it was worth a try.

Because our clearing was south of Metro, we would be forced to go around or through the city in order to continue. It was decided that, while the possibility of being discovered by a Beyond agent was much more likely, it would be much faster to cut through instead of traverse around the enormous city of steel.

"I hope you know the way to. . . wherever it is we're going," Leo chimed in as we approached the city, ever his optimistic self. "Where exactly are we going, again?"

"I don't know," I admitted. Leo scoffed.

"Perfect. Heading into the wild unknown on the whim of a crazed, _dead_ fortune-teller," He sighed, making a big show of shaking his head in disbelief. ". . . the same crazed, dead psychic whom, may I point out, nearly killed us all in a mad scheme for revenge against the evil group he secretly has ties to."

"You have a problem?" Penny snapped at him, shooting a piercing glance at the Linoone strong enough to melt steel. Leo shook his head.

"Oh, _no_, cherish the thought! I couldn't think of any better way to spend the last of my days, as following you lot around will certainly bring about my end."

I groaned and decided to ignore him, instead fixing my attention on the gateway entrance to Metro. There seemed to be. . . a strange dark mass, almost like a mob, gathered at the front gate. I stopped beside a grouping of rocks, making sure to stay hidden, and held out a paw for the rest to do the same.

"What's the matter, Shadow?" Liekkau joined me, peering over the rock outcropping, brow furrowed in worry. Her eyes were still dark and red from Ralts' funeral. It broke my heart to see how much she had actually cared for the psychic, which only seemed to fuel my guilt fire for not having appreciated him while he was around.

"There's something there, at the gate." I pointed, indicating the mass. Liekkau squinted, contemplating the mass with quiet consternation.

"What is it?"

"Not sure. It doesn't look good." I only studied the mass for a moment longer before it shifted as a whole, providing a clearer, and much more terrifying, point of view. I gasped, taking a step back from the rock, away from the mass.

"Shadow!?" Penny gasped, alarmed by my sudden reaction. She ran to me, eyes wide with worry. "Shadow, what's wrong? What is it?"

"It's. . ." I found myself unable to say it aloud. I took a look over the rocks again, to confirm my fears. I swallowed hard. "It's an army."

The mass was an enormous group of dark Pokemon, standing rank-and-file, solemn, silent, and cold as the very rocks we were taking refuge behind. Some of them wore strange, colored bands around their heads, and others held flags bearing the same symbol we saw on the outside of the Beyond building. There was no mistaking it: Beyond had something big planned. Something bad.

Penny joined me at the rock outcropping and gasped at the sight. A loud order barked from below and the mass of Pokemon moved as one, traveling as easily as a snake slithers across the open plain. They moved with a practiced quickness, heading soundlessly in our direction.

"I suggest," Leo said, frowning over the rocks at the vast army, "we go _around_ the city. Cutting through no longer seems to be an option."

I was so entranced by the massive force, I neglected to realize we were directly in the army's path. I glanced in both directions- either way we went, we would have to sneak past the advancing Pokemon, but it appeared that the west side of the city was absent of more soldiers.

"C'mon," I said, leading the others out of the army's path, cutting a wide arc to the west through the undergrowth, using tall grass and rock formations to our advantage. The advancing soldiers passed within mere feet of us: we tucked ourselves into the rock formations, stayed silent as we could, not daring even to think too loudly.

The army moved past us, silent and black as the night. Slowly I turned in my spot so I could peer over the lip of our rock cover. The tail end of the army was in sight and I thought we were clear to move when a flag-bearing Pokemon turned and stared right in my direction. I quickly ducked back behind my cover, praying that the dark Pokemon had not seen me and would not alert the rest of the soldiers.

I ignored the others' reactions and motioned for them to be quiet. We waited in tense silence, anticipating the entire army to descend upon us at any moment at the Pokemon that saw me's notice.

But as we waited, from around our cover I could see the tail end of the army disappearing from sight. With a sigh, I realized that the Pokemon had not alerted his comrades or, more likely, not seen me at all. I was about to relay this to the others when I heard nails clicking against the stone above my head.

I leapt up, shifting quickly into a defensive stance. In an instant, Penny, Leo, and Liekkau had joined at my side, the four of us staring down our single attacker. Despite being outnumbered, the dark Pokemon seemed unfazed.

The Pokemon had a short build with nail-tipped feet and long, devious-looking claws on its hands. It had a round face and roughly feline features, and it appeared one of its ears was longer than the other, and pink. It did not appear to have any metal crown on its head like many of the others had, but something else still struck me odd about it. It held the flag banner loosely at its side; the Pokemon took another step forward, unguarded as if completely oblivious to the four of us. We watched the Pokemon warily, waiting for it to attack or to call to its comrades, but it did neither.

"Black," it said simply, staring at me. I realized then what seemed odd about the Pokemon; its eyes were blank and white. It stared straight at me, but didn't really seem to actually see me. I looked to Penny, who was crouched defensively by my side with teeth bared at the black Pokemon. She glanced sidelong at me and shrugged.

"Black," the Pokemon said again, taking a step in my direction. Leo took a step in front of me and Penny hissed at the Pokemon, but it did not seem to deter it. It dropped its flag as it climbed down from the rock and came toward me, one clawed hand outstretched.

"Shadow," Penny hissed. "Attack it. It's one of them."

Despite this, the Pokemon didn't seem malicious. I was actually was curious about the strange Pokemon. Why hadn't it warned its comrades if it had seen or heard me? Why wasn't it attacking now? Why did it call me "Black"?

The dark Pokemon rested its clawed hand gently against my cheek, then did the same with its other hand, like it was reading my face with its hands. It lifted my chin up and, though I was beginning to think the strange Pokemon was blind, it seemed to look back into my eyes.

"Black," it whispered, awed. "It _is_ you." It released my face and stepped back, giving, surprisingly, a short, polite bow.

"Do you know him?" Liekkau whispered, watching the Pokemon nervously. I shook my head. I would have remembered if I had seen such a creature.

"Are you calling me 'Black'?" I asked the Pokemon. It nodded vigorously.

"Black should not be here." The Pokemon peered behind it, over the rocks. I wondered what it could possibly be checking up on without its sight. "It's too dangerous. The masters hunt for you every day."

I frowned at the Pokemon, but lowered my guard a bit. It didn't seem to want to do us harm, so why give it reason to think we might attack it? I would even go so far as to say it seemed genuinely concerned for our safety.

"My name is Shadow," I said. "And what are you talking about? Masters?"

"Were you planning to sneak around the west side of the city?" The Pokemon asked abruptly, looking at each of us in turn. With out waiting for an answer, it continued. "Bad idea, if Black wants to live."

I growled. "Who the hell-"

"East," The Pokemon asserted. "After the last of this group passes, cut east. There's a whole 'nother unit positioned along the west wall."

"We'd be walking right into their hands." Leo sounded surprised, for a change. Quickly glanced at Penny, but she seemed just as surprised. We had almost walked right into the hands of our enemies. If this strange Pokemon hadn't come along. . .

The Pokemon nodded. "So go east. Black must complete his mission."

"Mission?"

The Pokemon nodded. "Stop my masters. Bring the balance. Fix the stasis." He glanced back over the rock, then quickly back to us. "Find the Wave Rider."

I blinked at the Pokemon, trying to make sense of his babbling. "What are you-"

"Nathala!" A voice from the direction of the army called out. The strange Pokemon's ears twitched. "Nathala, where are you!?" The Pokemon glanced back over the lip of the rock, turned back and gave us one last nod, then with a single bound leapt over our rock cover.

I quickly crept up to the lip of the rock, peered over the side. The strange, informative Pokemon, Nathala, had picked up the flag and was running toward another small group of Pokemon just like it. It looked like a small section of the army; a few held different colored banners and even more had red metal bands around their heads. Nathala joined up with the group and spoke with them a few moments. We waited tensely behind our hiding spot, but the group of Pokemon did not so much as glance in our direction. They exchanged a few words then the entire group continued on, following after the tail end of the army.

I looked over my shoulder at the others. We all waited in tense silence until I felt it was fairly safe and sighed. Leo chuckled, then was joined by Liekkau and eventually the four of us were cracking up, rolling on the ground with tears streaming down our faces. The tension and impossibility of the moment was broken up- we completely forgot that we were not alone and abandoned any attempts at being stealthy. If any Dark Gang members had come across, we would have been helpless to them. On the bright side, though, it seemed laughter was the best medicine. In this case, at least.

"So," Penny said between bouts of laughter. "This Pokemon. . . do we trust him?"

"It's hard to say," I admitted, wiping away tears with a paw. "He seemed to be one of the Dark Gang. It could be a trap."

"I say we stick to our original plan," Leo said seriously, recovering from his laughing fit first. He sat up, sniffed, looked toward the western end of the city. "You saw how many Pokemon just marched past us. How many could they have left to spare?"

I nodded, though something about the strange Pokemon's behavior didn't add up. "He did seem to want to help."

"Of course he would. I'm sure he'd get some nice reward for luring us into their trap." Leo scoffed in disgust. "Let's just keep going." Leo set off in our originally intended direction. Penny and I, having finally recovered from laughing off the stressful situation, stood to follow him.

"Wait!" Liekkau jumped up and bounded around to the front of the pack. "Why would they have bothered with a trap?"

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well, if the Pokemon had noticed us there, if he wanted to capture us he would have just called to the rest of them, wouldn't he?" Liekkau looked between the three of us, looking for approval. "It wouldn't make sense to try luring us into a trap if he had us trapped behind the rocks."

"I-" Leo began to object, but cut off mid-sentence. "I. . . suppose you're right."

"That's a good point, Liekkau," I admitted. I hadn't even considered the possibility. It seemed the dark Pokemon _had_ wanted to help us out, after all. I thought about it a moment, but came to the same conclusion. If they had really intended to trap us, they could've just taken the opportunity that was handed to them. Which meant there were Pokemon- well, at least one- within the Gang that weren't against us!

"Thank you, Liekkau," I smiled at her. She smiled back, and I could swear she blushed as well, but any cheek tint was hidden by red fur. I turned to Penny and Leo. "I say we follow his advice. We go the other way."

"Are you sure, Shadow?" Penny asked, brows knit with concern. "Is it a good idea to risk listening to the Dark Gang?" I gave her a smile as well.

"Absolutely," I nodded. "Let's get moving. Eastward, we go."

We moved silently from behind our hiding places, just to be sure the coast was clear. After confirming the whole army had left, we continued on our way, but this time we headed east. As we proceeded a lack of Dark Gang made it abundantly clear that we would not run into any trouble, but that didn't stop Leo from humming the Death March the entire way.

----------

When we stopped, we made camp at the base of a mountain.

At least, I was pretty sure it was a mountain, but it could very well have been the back of some great beast, reaching up to the sky to scrape the stars. The mountains were enormous- it made the ones we had seen before look tiny and insignificant. Something about the mountains seemed right, though- I was sure I would find the mysterious blue Pokemon somewhere among its peaks.

We set up as per usual at the foot of the mountain. It had begun to rain that night so we walked until we found a suitable rock overhang to set up under to protect us from the storm. As it were, the spot we chose was so far beneath the overhang we were almost inside the mountain.

We huddled around the fire, all of us desperate for warmth except for Liekkau, who didn't seem to mind the cold nearly as much as she hated the rain.

"We could be stuck here for days," Leo pointed out depressingly and, as usual, unhelpfully. "Or longer. Then what?"

I sighed ad ignored him, turning back to the meager flames. Penny sat opposite me, the bright flames reflected in her solemn eyes. Liekkau sat next to me on my right, but seemed to be getting closer every time I looked back at her.

"And the way our little 'shelter' is constructed, if this rain floods, we'll all drown," Leo was continuing, as if the situation couldn't get any worse than it already was. "And another thing-"

"Leo!" Penny shouted, glaring at the Linoone. "Shut the _hell_ up before I come over there and do it for you."

Leo rolled his eyes. "Pff. Well _someone's_ cycling normally."

In an instant Penny was on her feet and standing over the Linoone, one paw pressed to his chest. She was glaring at Leo through clenched teeth and, though she was no longer by the fire, her eyes burned. "What was that!? You want to repeat that, asshole?"

Leo coughed but still managed to grin weakly at Penny. "Hah. . . it was a compliment," he spluttered. He shot me a look. "You're all clear, buddy. The bitch is all yours."

"I'll kill you!" Penny snarled, baring her teeth over Leo's neck. Her rings glowed bright and her eyes black. The air felt strange, like there was a power buzzing about it. I shut my eyes briefly and when I opened them Penny was surrounded by a blinding halo of white light- her Aura. It was going into overdrive, crackling with energy.

"Shadow!" Liekkau sounded terrified.

"Leo! Penny!" I leapt up and knocked Penny away from the Linoone with my shoulder. I looked at the two of them and shook my head. "You're not enemies! You shouldn't be killing each other!"

Penny was tense, still panting from rage. Her Aura had died down a bit, but still burned with a little leftover anger. Leo had managed to sit up and looked like he was trying to act cool, but his own Aura showed that he was visibly shaken by Penny's attack. I sighed.

"Apologize, both of you." The two eyed each other with a look of disgust usually reserved for rotting meat or an unwanted relative. I growled, "Now."

Penny sighed. "I shouldn't have attacked you, Leo. I'm sorry."

"Damn straight you are."

"Leo!" I growled.

"Alright, alright!" he grumbled. "I'm sorry, too. I didn't mean all those things I said. . . mostly."

Penny glared at the Linoone; I shook my head at her. "It's the best you're going to get."

An awkward silence descended over the camp. As if for dramatic effect, a timely wind blew the fire out. Liekkau chuckled nervously. "M-maybe. . . that's our cue to get some sleep?"

"Separately," I insisted, noticing Leo and Penny continued to glare at each other. "C'mon, Leo. We're going outside."

"What!?" He broke his staring contest with Penny to give me a look of disbelief. "But it's _wet_ out there!"

I sighed, rolled my eyes. "Should've thought of that before you threw round names." While Leo I turned back to Penny. "You two will be alright here by yourselves?"

She smiled and nodded, seemingly amused by Leo's imminent discomfort. "Sure, Shadow. I think we'll manage."

I smiled back, nodded. "Good. And how about you, Liekkau? Are you alright with-" I was interrupted by Liekkau's mouth, which I suddenly found pressed against my own. Through eyes wide with surprise, I saw Liekkau's Aura flare magnificently around her, like a living flame. Its normal dark blue had been changed in the moment, to something closer to purple. After a moment, she broke away with a soft sigh.

"Goodnight, Shadow." Liekkau smiled shyly, a blush clearly visible in her cheeks.

"L-Liekkau. . ." She giggled as I stumbled over my words. "Liekkau, what are- ahh!" I was suddenly blinded by a powerful white light. I was forced to duck down and cover my eyes with my paws.

"Shadow?" Liekkau asked, concerned. "What's wrong?"

Liekkau couldn't see the light. Squinting, I looked up at Penny and sure enough, her Aura was a blazing beacon of crackling energy so bright I had difficulty seeing her amidst it. She was angry. Angrier than she had been at Leo.

"Penny. . ." I started, but words failed me. Penny gave me a poisonous glare then turned and stalked off into the rain. As the blinding light cleared, I moved to the entrance to our shelter. I could no longer see her in the downpour. "Penny. . ."

Behind me, Leo chuckled. "Oh no she _didn't_."

----------

Heavy rain made visibility low and movement virtually nonexistent. It was reckless going after Penny, but I strangely felt drawn to her. Like I wasn't in control of my own actions. So I rushed from our shelter and into the storm, desperate to find a glimpse of Penny's bright Aura.

I ran recklessly out into the night, calling Penny's name, as if she would answer me. I searched furiously in the immediate area around the shelter, but when it became clear she was not nearby, I ran out farther. It did not take long for my vigor to be washed away by the freezing rain, plastering my fur to my skin and slowing me down.

By the time I rested to take a breather, I realized I hadn't been paying attention to where I had been going. I surveyed my surroundings; what little could be seen in the storm did not look anything like the landscape near our shelter.

"Dammit," I cursed. The last thing I needed was to get lost at a time like this. On top of everything, it was getting late. No doubt it would be unwise to be out in the rain while the night-dwelling predators roamed about. The mountain range was at my back- I could follow it back to Leo and Liekkau in the morning.

After I found Penny, of course. And no sooner.

I took one last deep breath and turned back to the mountains. About thirty feet up there appeared to be a small cave in the face of the mountain that would have to serve as a makeshift shelter for the night. The slope was not too steep, but the path was rocky and jagged and the rain made everything slick and muddy. Gritting my teeth against the bite of the rain, I began my ascent up the side of the mountain.

My eyes and ears began to play tricks on me as clouds blocked out the moon and darkness settled around me. Shadows danced in the corners of my vision and disappeared when I turned to face them. Rocks tumbled and branches snapped around me, with no good cause or reason. What I had mistakenly thought was a cave in the mountain had only been a trick of the light, and as a result I had spent another hour searching for something similar.

I growled in frustration, setting myself down for a rest. I was tired and soaked, numb long since past the point of feeling the rain, I was hungry and I was lost. I had no clue where Penny could have been, or even if she was still out here. She could have returned to the camp by now, for all I knew.

_Oh, damn,_ I thought, _What if they're all looking for me now?_ I groaned. I go out to find Penny and only manage to get the others worried about me. Great.

A stick crunched behind me and I jumped up, tripped over a rock and landed face-first into a puddle of mud. I sat up slowly, wiping the mud away with a paw and noticed movement from the corner of my eye. There was no doubt about it. _Something's following me._

I looked around desperately for an escape. The rain had lightened up some, and I could just barely make out the shape of a structure in the rocks: an arch constructed from three boulders stacked on each other. Without pausing to consider it, I leapt up and dashed to the structure. I did not catch the strange shadow pursuing me, but nonetheless I dove under the arch the moment I reached it.

Inside, for indeed it was the entrance to what appeared to be a small, manmade niche, it was dry and warm. I sighed, relieved to have finally found shelter, and shook the excess water from my fur. I poked my head out from under the arch, searching for a sign of the shadow. I perked my ears, expecting to hear another incriminating noise. What I didn't expect was singing.

"_Look into my eyes,_

_All eternity you will find-_

_In this fragile heart,_

_Know that you will always belong._

_Shout into the night,_

_Show the darkness that you will fight._

_Hopeless you may feel,_

_But inside I know you are strong_."

I recognized the voice immediately.

"Penny?" I asked into the darkness in the back of the niche, my voice echoing faintly. The singing stopped. I ventured again. "Penny, are you here?"

". . . Shadow?" Squinting carefully into the dark, I could see a faint white glow. I grinned and exhaled heavily. It felt like a huge weight had been removed from my chest- not only had I found shelter, I had found Penny!

Penny emerged from the darkness, rings glowing softly. Her Aura had more or less returned to normal, and she physically seemed less angry, as well. I smiled.

"Glad I found you," I chuckled. "You took off so suddenly, I was worried. . ."

Penny sighed, hanging her head. She seemed to be avoiding making eye contact. "Sorry, Shadow. I shouldn't have done that." She lifted her head, frowned at me. "It was. . . thoughtless. I didn't mean to worry anyone."

I shrugged. "It's fine, Penny, really. I'm just relieved you're okay."

Penny scoffed. "That's surprising." Her frown seemed to deepen, and tendrils of her Aura began to whip around her angrily. "You could have at least _told_ me there was something going on between you and Liekkau."

I was momentarily stunned by her words, rendered only able to blink and sit, gaping, as my mind tried to grasp the situation. "_That's_ why you stormed off?" I asked, still having trouble believing it after saying it out loud. "Penny, there's nothing going on between us. I mean it."

"Tell that to her," Penny frowned. "You sure seemed to like that kiss."

"Penny. . . are you jealous?"

"What?" Penny demanded, apparently taken aback. "Of course not!"

I chuckled. "You are, aren't you!"

"NO!"

"You're blushing."

Penny huffed, tuning her back to me. "That's not it, Shadow."

I grinned. "What is it, then? C'mon, tell me."

Penny was silent for a long moment, before looking at me over her shoulder. She was blushing, hard. "Leo was right."

"Leo was. . . huh?"

Penny sighed. "Leo was right. About my. . ." Her blush deepened, and she murmured so I almost could not make out her words. ". . . cycle."

"Your. . . oh." An awkward silence descended immediately. Only after her confession was I aware of a strange, almost intoxicating scent in the cavern. I swallowed hard. "So, then, you're. . ."

Penny nodded. "Mhm. . ." We sat in silence. After a time, Penny slowly stood from her spot and walked over to me.

"I'm sorry, Penny, I-" For the second time that night, I was interrupted by a kiss, this time from Penny. When she broke away, she rested her head on my shoulder. I could feel the heat of her breath on my ears.

"Perhaps it's good you've come, then," she whispered.

I turned my head to look at her. "Penny. . . what are you saying?"

Penny chuckled, turning about and walked toward the rear of the cavern, running her tail beneath my nose as she did so. "It's perfect, don't you think? You want something. . . I want something." She stopped, facing away from me, her tail lifted high, presenting me a view of her rear. "_And_ we're alone."

My brain had trouble keeping up with this entire conversation. Was Penny really offering. . . that? I could scarcely believe we had come to this. But, of course, something felt wrong.

"Penny. . . I don't think. . ." It was difficult to form complete sentences in my head, much less vocalize them. "Maybe we shouldn't, y'know?"

"What do you mean?" Penny frowned. "This is what you want, right? You've told me on several occasions how much you care for me."

It was my turn to frown. "Wait, Penny. . . yes, I care about you. A lot." I took a deep breath. I couldn't believe I was saying this. "But. . . please don't mistake what I feel for. . ._ this._ It's not the same."

Penny was now facing me again, brows knit together, looking more confused than angry. "I don't get it, Shadow. I thought you wanted me to love you in return."

"Penny. . ." I was horrified. What life had she had before, where the true purity of love was denied for this? Was this why she had avoided speaking with me about the subject before? Did she think all I wanted from her was _sex_? "Penny, love is unconditional. Love is the wonderful feelings you get about someone you truly care for." I shook my head. "This isn't it, Penny. And while it is true that I wish you would share my feelings, I don't want you to think you need to because we've mated."

"Shadow?"

"I love you for you, Penny. I wish you'd do the same for me." I turned and headed back to the entrance of the cavern, taking a seat beneath the arch. The rain had stopped completely but the gloomy clouds had not yet dissipated. Everything was still wet and muddy, but it didn't appear to have flooded.

_Won't Leo be disappointed_, I thought sullenly. With the new light poking from the cloudy sky I could see things cast in a different light; everything was a little bit clearer. In the distance I recognized the outcropping of rocks that defined our overhang. _I'll have to head back soon, unless Liekkau might worry._

"Hey." A figure sat down beside me; Penny, her Aura having finally died down once more to a soft glow about her body. Normally I'd mention how it amplified her beauty, but then I couldn't think of anything beautiful about her.

"We should be getting back," I said, standing up. "C'mon, we can get back before sunup."

"Shadow, wait." Penny placed a paw on my shoulder, forcing me back to the ground. She turned me to face her, looked me in the eyes. "Shadow. . . I want to say I'm sorry."

I did not say anything. Penny looked unsure for a moment, then continued.

"Things are. . . confusing right now, what with the cycle and such." She bit her lip, choosing her words carefully. "I never meant to offend you. I never wanted to appear like I was using your feelings for my advantage. I. . . I truly thought this is what you wanted."

"How could you think that, Penny?" I asked, frowning. I still felt hurt, but it was good to know she wished to apologize. "How could you think my feelings were anything but sincere?"

"That's just it, Shadow," Penny insisted. "In my experience, in my background. . . that's all love has been. It's all it meant to the ones I loved."

I was stunned to silence. She had always been very hush-hush about her past, but it never really occurred to me how bad it might've been for her.

"Penny. . ."

Penny turned to look at me, a new determined fire in her eyes. "I've never loved someone this way before, Shadow," she said. Her blush returned, but she did not look away this time. "But. . . if you're willing, I'd like to try. With you."

By way of response, I pressed my mouth to her own. In the moment before I shut my eyes and lost myself in bliss, I saw her Aura flare up in the same way Liekkau's had when she kissed me. It was then that I knew this was for real.

I had loved Penny for a long time now, and she finally loved me back.

**A/N: **


	17. Triangles

**EDIT: I added a bit more to the chapter. I was sort of rushing to get it released and I got a few comments about it, so I decided to amend it.**

**Author's Note: So, I'm back! Jubiliations all arou- **_**holy prolonged absences, Batman!**_** SEVEN months?**

**I don't really have much to say that I haven't already done so a hundred thousand times, but I dearly, sincerely **_**promise**_** that I will attempt to have these two stories finished, or at least close to, by. . . eventually. I really hate making promises and then not keeping them, but I have a lot of reasons to want to finish these up quickly, but I ALSO don't want to just rush the story, so. . . please be patient with me!**

**And hey, I also have a new poll on my profile! I encourage you all to vote on your favorite Shadow/_ pairing. I heard a rumour that it might affect the outcome of the story ;D**

_Love is sacred, love is pure,_

_None can resist love's allure._

_Thru the trials we'll endure_

_All in the name of love._

When I awoke, Penny's warm body was the only thing that mattered to me. In the night she had cuddled up so close to me that no space existed between my chest and her back. I was captivated by every inch of her, of her smell, or her warmth. I lazily draped a foreleg over her side and tried to pull her closer, eliciting a groan from her.

"Morning, love," I smirked, gently kissing the top of her head. Penny craned her neck backwards, blinking the sleep from her eyes. Upon seeing me, she smiled.

"G'morning, Shadow." She nuzzled my chin, gave me a quick kiss, then rolled over to stand up. I followed suit, yawning and stretching out as I did.

The rain had stopped earlier in the day but only momentarily, and from that moment had steadily worsened as the day drew on. Penny and I decided that we would wait for the weather to clear up before returning to Liekkau and Leo, but since it never did we eventually fell asleep beside each other.

As we slowly shifted from sleep mode, a quick scan outside the little den showed that it was getting close to nighttime. The sun was still setting, but as it was lowering behind the mountains it cast a long shadow across the valley before us. The heavy rain had more or less stopped, and now only a light drizzle continued.

"We should probably head back. . ." I said, glancing outside the den. It was still light enough to find our way back, but the trek back down to Leikkau and Leo wouldn't be easy. Given that the two of them were still there.

"Shadow?" Penny appeared beside me. "Shadow, about earlier. . . I'm sorry if I came on too strong. If you would prefer, maybe we could just forget about what happened. . ."

I kissed her on the forehead, cutting her off. "You're worried about whether _I_ like _you_? Penny, I've tried all along to get you to like me, and when you finally do-" I sat up straight, a thought occurred. "You. . . you _don't_ like me, do you?"

"No!" Penny shouted hurriedly. "I mean, yes! Er. . . of course I like you, Shadow. And I have. . . I have for a while. It's just difficult for me, you know? I'm not used to all this. . . affection."

I chuckled. "Get used to it. You're going to be getting a lot of it from now on." I kissed her briefly, this time connecting with her mouth. "Unless you're _that_ objected to it?"

"Of course not." We kissed again and my heart swelled. I loved this girl so much. . .

"We should head back," I repeated, reluctantly stepping outside and away from Penny. I forced back a shiver from the chilled air and freezing rain. I looked over my shoulder at Penny and offered her a smile. "Coming?"

We made our way carefully down the slippery slope toward the sharp outcropping of rocks that marked the den where Leo and Liekkau resided. After so much rain the ground was incredibly muddy, and between the two of us we tripped at least a dozen times. By the time we reached the ground and arrived outside the rock overhang, our fur was almost completely stained by mud.

"Hello?" I called out, poking my head into the small den created by the overhang. There was no reply. "Liekkau? Leo?"

"What?" Penny asked, appearing beside me. "Are they not here?" I shrugged and stepped back outside the overhang, observing our surroundings. It was starting to get dark and it was still cloudy, but it shouldn't have been too hard to spot them, especially the bright red flareon. And it hadn't stopped raining very long ago, so they couldn't have gotten far. Still, as I scanned the face of the mountain towering before me, I could not see any sign of them.

"SHADOOOW!" I was struck on the side by a powerful force and was thrown off my feet. The same forced wrestled me onto my back and began showering my face with affectionate licks. "Shadow, we were so worried! When the rain stopped we went out looking for you but we couldn't find you anywhere!"

"Good to see you too, Liekkau," I managed to say between voracious assaults of her tongue. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a very wet Leo come ambling into the den. He gave Penny a look then shirked away to a farther corner. "That was some storm, wasn't it?"

Liekkau was appalled. "_How_ can you be so calm about this? Shadow, I was really worried. . . you and Penny could have gotten hurt or killed for all we know." She collapsed atop me, pressing her weight against my chest. Her face was close to mine. I saw deep into her eyes, and there were genuine tears there. "Don't scare me like that again, Shadow. Please."

I glanced past Liekkau's head at Penny, who was watching me incredulously. I mouthed "I'm sorry" to her and, to my extreme relief, she just shook her head and chuckled to show she understood that the rabid affection Liekkau was displaying was entirely one-sided. Penny knew where my heart stood. That mere thought brought a smile to my face.

"Hey, hey. . ." I said softly, placing a paw on Liekkau's back and patting her in what I hoped felt like a comforting manner. "I'm sorry to make you worry, Liekkau. We had to wait out the storm but we're back now. We're alright."

Liekkau sniffed but gave me a smile and lifted herself off me. I noticed that whatever dampness that had been in my fur had been eliminated by her warmth, but as a result Liekkau's whole underside was caked with dry mud.

I grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. Didn't have much time to clean off before we got back, so we're a little dirty."

"That's an understatement," Penny quipped, flicking a paw in the air and sending mud flying all over the wall of the den. "I think we all need a bath."

Liekkau immediately brightened up. "Ah! My village is somewhere in these mountains and it had several warm wellsprings around it." She grinned and stood on her back paws, clapping her forepaws together excitedly. "There is nothing to apologize about! A warm bath would be wonderful!"

"Remember our mission, guys," I reminded them. "Ralts told us we need to find the Wave Rider, and I think-"

"S-speaking of apologies. . ."

I was startled into silence. Over my shoulder I saw Leo, still in his corner. His face was flushed red, he was staring intently at the ground and he looked very much like he wished to disappear like a snover in a blizzard.

"Leo?"

He glanced up at me momentarily, then turned his attention to Penny. "I. . ." He paused for a long moment. Whatever he intended to say, it appeared to require a lot of willpower from the linoone. "I'm sorry, Penny. What I said yesterday was unacceptable. . . I shouldn't have snapped."

I blinked and glanced at Penny, confirming that she was just as surprised as I was. Liekkau, on the other hand, looked unamused and even frowned at the linoone. She must have had some say in Leo's rather uncharacteristic change of heart. I couldn't help but wonder what she put the stubborn linoone through to get him to suddenly become so docile.

"I. . . I forgive you, Leo." Penny sounded bemused, but I was proud that she found the ability to forgive Leo. At least for the time being. "And I'm sorry that I snapped at you. I was. . . moody."

"Does this mean we have to be friends now?" Leo asked sincerely, somewhat deflating the sincerity of his apology. By way of answer, though, we all laughed. We laughed partially out of good humor, and partially out of relief. It had been a long, miserable day, and it seemed we were all changed somehow by it.

Except, perhaps, for Leo, whom we could always count on to show his true colors.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Liekkau expertly led us up the winding trails through the mountains. It seemed this particular portion of the extended mountain range was much easier to traverse than Penny and I originally anticipated. This section appeared to be a series of flat plateaus connected by thin trails through the towering peaks. It looked intimidating from the bottom, but it was a much simpler time than most of our previous travels.

Our journey was impaired a bit by the darkness, though. As we began our ascent, night descended upon us like a curtain of black velvet, with only a pale sliver of moonlight to guide our path.

"You're sure you know where you're going? It seems we've made no progress and-" Leo let out a loud yelp, not for the first time. "- and I seem to be stepping on all the _sharp_ rocks. . ."

"What Leo _means_," I interjected, "Is. . . are you familiar with these parts? I know you're from these mountains and all, but. . ."

"_Seon varma!_" Liekkau flashed me a smile, full of delight. Being in her homeland appeared to be raising her spirits significantly. "Of course! There's a secret to navigating this range, so it's not too difficult."

I gave her a weak smile back. It was wonderful that being home cheered her up, but her mood had slowly turned from endearing to annoying as time dragged on. And given that we had been walking for what must have been several hours over a dark, blank terrain, it had not taken long to grow tired of her smiley disposition.

"Fantastic," Leo grumbled. "More secrets. That's just what we need right now."

Penny moved closer to me until we were walking in step. She gave me a discreet smile. I grinned back at her, and after confirming that neither Liekkau nor Leo were looking in our direction, I gave her a soft kiss on the cheek. We decided earlier to keep the nature of our relationship secret from Leo and Liekkau. Especially Liekkau. The girl seemed to still have feelings for me, and if we intended to travel as a group, it wouldn't do to cause dissension amongst the group.

Plus, it was kind of exciting to hide our feelings from the others. It was like something from a story, where the star-crossed lovers must hide their relationship or face the adversity of their peers. Where a prince fights his way through numerous obstacles to come to the maiden's rescue. Unlike those tales, though, I was determined that ours would not end in tragedy.

"It shouldn't be much further," Liekkau announced. "We may have to go off the beaten path a bit, but it should not be too bad."

"Where are we going, exactly?" Leo appeared beside me so quickly that I jumped a little. I quickly averted my gaze from Penny's.

"That's a seeeecret!" Liekkau said, almost singsong. She looked over her shoulder and gave the linoone a wink. "_Minä olen niinno_, I can't wait! I know you guys will love it!"

Penny and I allowed Leo to pull ahead of us so we were walking side-by-side at the rear of the group. I shot a glance toward her and she smiled at me again. Out of joy, I chuckled. It was almost unreal that this was happening. I was convinced that I must have been dreaming, that Penny certainly could not share my feelings, much less desire to be with me as well? The thought brought a moronic smile to my face.

Penny laughed and I felt her brush her tail around my rear. She gave me a shy smile and curled her tail gently around mine. We walked together that way, tails interlocked, our secret safe from the prying eyes of our companions but plain for the whole world to see.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

"We're here!" Liekkau announced some time later. Confused, I looked around. Though it had gotten dark, I could not see any significant change in scenery from that last several hours of hiking we had done. In fact, it was safe to say that this particular outcropping of rock looked no different from any other on this mountain.

"Liekkau. . . there's nothing here." I sighed. "Look, I know you lived in these mountains, Liekkau, but maybe you don't know _this_ area. It's understandable."

Liekkau chuckled and gave me a smile. "Only relying on your sight, Shadow?" She winked coyly at me. "You're limiting yourself. Can't you smell it?"

I stopped and inhaled deeply, but it only smelled like, well. . . mud and sweat and dust. I sighed. "Liekkau-"

"Oh, wow!" Penny exclaimed. Her eyes were closed in concentration; she was sniffing the air as well. "I wouldn't have noticed that before. . . good nose, Liekkau."

The Flareon grinned. "It's a trick I learned growing up here. You have to trust all your senses in the mountains."

I sighed. "I don't smell anything. What are you getting at, Liekkau?"

To my annoyance, she giggled again. "C'mon, Shadow! Concentrate."

I groaned again, but remembered back to my training with Ralts. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, canceling out all excess noise. I took another deep breath, focusing my mind, blocking out all other thoughts. I inhaled deeply for a third time, expecting to smell the same as before, but I was surprised when I smelled something sweet and. . . strangely relaxing.

I wrinkled my nose, opened my eyes. "That's odd. . . what is that?"

Liekkau smiled again and gestured toward a rocky shelf, raised above rest of the plateau, with her nose. "Over there. Go take a look."

I carefully made my way off Liekkau's path, clambering toward the rock shelf. As I approached, the enticing, relaxing smell grew even stronger, and I noticed a soft glow from beyond the lip of the shelf. I gave a wary look back at Liekkau, who urged me forward with a wave of her paws. It was Penny's supportive smile, however, that made me turn back to face the shelf. Climbing up onto my back legs, I peered over the rim of the shelf and gasped at what I saw.

Beyond the lip of the shelf, the ground descended at a slope, forming a bowl-shaped section that seemed to be cut straight from the mountain. On the far side of the shelf was a crevasse in the rock face, a long crack that descended into darkness. Between that, in the center of the bowl, was the cause of my wonder.

A soft glow emitted from three round depressions in the bowl, filled with pristine, crystal-clear water. In direct contrast with the brown scrub of the mountain plateaus, lush green grass covered the floor of the bowl, and soft moss covered the stone rim of the pools of water. A variety of Pokemon ambled the area around the pools, and in large, leaning trees dangling with vibrant fruit.

"Wow," I breathed.

"Something in the water reacts to the stone of the springs," Liekkau appeared by my side, a big smile on her face. She continued her explanation. "Which causes them to glow at night. The glow attracts Pokemon like volbeat and illumise," She pointed to the small bug Pokemon buzzing serenely through the air. "Which in turn attracts Pokemon that eat them, like weepinbell." She indicated a group of yellow, bell-shaped plant Pokemon hanging from the tree branches. She then pointed to a group of green, almost humanoid Pokemon with large roses at the end of their arms. "When Pokemon like roselia see the weepinbell in the trees, they know that there is fresh water here, which is good for their blooms."

I sat and marveled at the scene before me, laid out so eloquently by Liekkau. Each Pokemon affected each other, and each had their own purpose for being here. Even in this small section of land, nature created a perfect web of ecological stasis. _This is what Ralts was talking about_, I realized. I never _really_ knew what he meant when he spoke of the Aura Web and how fragile its stasis was. I couldn't grasp how every single living Pokemon could possibly effect one another, but now it all made sense. Every living thing, from the smallest volbeat to the most majestic roselia, served an important purpose and made life in these otherwise uninhabitable mountains possible.

"Wow," I said again. "This is. . . incredible, Liekkau."

"Are these the warm wellsprings you were talking about?" Penny asked, appearing on my other side. "It's beautiful!"

Liekkau giggled. "Wait to you feel the water. . . the combination of the minerals in the water and the roselia's relaxing aromatherapy will make you feel brand new again. It's wonderful!"

As we approached the wellsprings, we got some strange looks from the local Pokemon, but after a quick exchange in Liekkau's language, the flareon convinced them to let the four of us make use of their water.

I walked up to one of the pools of water, the hot steam and the scent of the roselia washing over me and making feel lightheaded. I tentatively stuck a paw in the water, and immediately yelped aloud and scrambled away, tripping backwards over my tail.

"Liekkau! I Thought you said this water was _warm_!" I complained, waving my scalded paw in the air in an attempt to cool it. I had a feeling that if I could see beneath the fur, the skin of my paw would be angry red and throbbing with pain.

Liekkau chuckled at me. She lowered herself into the pool with a loud, contented sigh. "Is it too hot? I never had a problem with it."

"Did you ever stop to think that might be because you're a _fire_ type?" Leo grumbled. He was leaning over the edge of the pool, watching the water hesitantly. "The rest of us don't have your tolerance to heat, y'know."

"Oh just try it, you stick-in-the-mud!" Penny taunted. She had already lowered herself into the pool and, other than a visible grimace on her face, did not appear to be bothered by the heat. "It gets better once you've gotten in. Just try it."

I took a deep breath and stuck my paw in once again, hissing sharply through my teeth when the heat his me. I stuck it out and fully submerged my arm in the pool and after a moment, I decided Penny was right. It would be hot for a few moments, but it didn't take long to get used to. Taking another deep breath to work up my courage, I turned around and quickly lowered myself into the pool tail-first.

I slipped on the slick rim of the pool and slid down the inner wall, accidentally submerging myself completely in the hot water. The heat caught up to me quickly, making me gasp involuntarily. My mouth filled with water, it burned in my chest and stung my eyes. I flailed my limbs, clawing desperately, swimming towards air.

When I broke the surface, the night air washed over me like a wave. I gasped a few times, the cool air burning my chest. Liekkau and Penny were laughing out loud, and even Leo had a wry smirk on his face. After a moment I caught my breath, and I smiled along with them, leaning back against the wall of the pool. The pool wasn't very deep; I was able to lean back against the wall and, sitting down, my head and neck still rose above the water. Having gotten used to it, the water felt very nice and cleansing; even the mud that washed from my body seemed to simply disappear in the water.

Leo joined us a moment later, and soon we were all resting our eyes, relaxing while Liekkau described more aspects about the land she came from. I cracked an eye open and looked at Penny. She looked serene, at peace with her eyes closed, and small smile playing on her lips. I slid closer to her until our bodies touched and wrapped my tail around hers beneath the water. She didn't turn to look at me, but her growing smile let me know that she appreciated me being there.

". . . and all the elements together are supposed to be good for your health. Oh, and in my village it is said that it eases and aids childrearing." I didn't need to open my eyes to guess that the body which slid up on the other side of me belong to Liekkau. "So a lot of. . . _pregnant mothers _periodically use the springs." After a moment, "Isn't that neat, Shadow?"

"Mhm," I agreed with her, hoping she would be quiet and relax for a moment. She slid a bit closer to me, and it was in that moment that the gravity of her words hit me full-force. I opened my eyes and slowly turned to her. "Liekkau. . . what are you saying?"

The flareon did not answer, instead simply smiling at me. "Liekkau. . ." I was overcome with a feeling of dread. Liekkau stifled a giggle. "Liekkau. . . you're not. . .?"

The proverbial dam burst. Liekkau leapt at me, all smiles and laughter. "I am, I am!" she laughed, hugging her arms tight around me and kissing my face. "Isn't it wonderful? I didn't want to tell you until the time was right. . ."

I was in shock. I could see Penny and Leo had their full attention on us, their eyes just as wide as mine felt to be. "Liekkau. . . are you certain?"

Liekkau nodded vigorously. "Ralts told me first. While you and Penny were gone. But since then I've been feeling the effects." She gave me a deep kiss on the mouth, let it waver a moment before holding me tighter. "You're going to be a father, Shadow. . . isn't it wonderful?"

"It's. . . unbelievable." I stared dumbly, unable to form a single rational sentence. Liekkau was going to be a mother and I. . . the father? No, no, no, this wasn't right. I love Penny, not Liekkau! She and I had never even-

Oh yeah. But _once_ was enough for. . . for this? I could not wrap my mind around it. I could barely tell you the first thing about the girl, much less rear her children! I was reminded of my dream. . . Liekkau appeared pregnant, and her mental future slideshow showed the two of us surrounded by kits. Was that what my life was destined to become? My mind raced, and I was incapable of doing anything more than giving Liekkau a blank smile.

"That's _great_!" Leo exclaimed with what sounded like suspiciously false enthusiasm. He did not help the situation at all by nudging Penny. "Don't be rude, Pen. Aren't you happy for the lovely couple?"

"I. . ." Penny was at just as much a loss for words as I was. She seemed to be purposely avoiding looking at Liekkau or me. When she looked up, her eyes were misty with tears. "Congratulations, the both of you."

The linoone grinned. "I, for one, am _ecstatic_." I could not decide if he was truly being sincere, or just incredibly sarcastic. "Do you have any ideas for names yet? Ooh! Can I be their Godfather?"

"Not yet!" Liekkau was so wonderfully happy, she was practically glowing. In fact, I could faintly see the outline of her Aura emerging around her form, bathing her in a soft blue glow. Mixed in with the blue was something I never understood until now- a few slivers of different colors were visible. Liekkau's children were already a part of the Aura web, forever destined to be a part of the grand picture.

"Liekkau?" The flareon turned back to me, a wide smile on her face. She kissed me on the forehead.

"Do you have any ideas for names, Shadow?" Liekkau was genuinely happy about this. It hurt to think that she may have been the only one. She would be devastated if I told her about Penny and me, not to mention she would have to raise the kits on her own.

No. Absolutely not. I grew up without a father _and_, for most of my life, without a proper mother. I knew what it felt like to be abandoned by your own parents, and there was no way I was going to let it happen to my own children. The only problem was that I couldn't possibly leave Penny, either. She had been through the same as I, and it was probably asking too much of her to accept that fact that I would need to raise my own illegitimate kits.

What a mess.

"Liekkau, I-" I didn't know what to say. Luckily, I was interrupted by a loud splash and a wave; Penny had gotten out of the spring and stalked off once again. I groaned as I watched her disappear beyond the rim of the pool. "Liekkau, I. . . we'll talk about this later, I promise. But right now I need to go check something." I gently pushed her off of me and climbed out of the pool. The cool air washed over me. I shivered, but it might have been nerves.

"She went that way," Leo said, pointing in the direction I saw her go. A trail of wet footprints lead toward the crevasse, verifying his claim.

"Shadow, what's wrong?" Liekkau watched me with concern.

"Dammit," I groaned, ignoring Liekkau and taking off, following Penny's trail.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

The crevasse was no more than a crack that had grown to separate the mountain into two vertical walls with no more a foot of space between them. As I approached I saw Penny's tracks had disappeared into the inky blackness. From this side, I could faintly see a glow amidst the darkness. So there was something on the other side. The crevasse was tight, but it was just wide enough for me to walk through if I hunched up my shoulders.

I took a deep breath and squeezed my way into the crack, waiting a second for my eyes to adjust. When this did not happen, I closed my eyes and concentrated. When I looked again, there appeared to be a strong white light penetrating the darkness.

Penny.

I slowly made my way through the crevasse, following the trail of Penny's aura. I struggled to squeeze through as the crevasse narrowed near the end, but eventually I emerged on the other side. Another rock shelf stretched out over open air before me, and another wellspring sat in its center. Penny sat at its edge, staring placidly into the water.

"Penny?" I asked. Her aura flared and she looked at me over her shoulder, her eyes filled with betrayal. "Penny, I don't know what to say. . ."

"How could you, Shadow?" She said, almost a whisper. She turned but I could tell even from behind that she was wiping her eyes. "With. . . her? And after I. . ."

"Penny, this isn't something new!" I protested, only succeeding in getting an even _dirtier_ look from Penny. "I mean. . . she and haven't done. . . _that_. Not really. It was way back when we first rescued her."

"So you took advantage of her rescue? Is that it, Shadow?"

"No!" Her words cut me deep. She knew me better than that, yet. . . she looked at me as though I were no better than the dirt beneath her feet. "Penny. . . while we were captured. They forced me, I already told you!"

Penny was silent for a long moment. She sighed. "I'm sorry, Shadow. That's. . . it's kind of what I assumed."

I stepped up beside her, gave her a kiss on the cheek. "You know that I love _you_, Penny. No matter what."

"What are you going to do now?" She sighed. "There's no way in hell I'm letting you abandon those kits."

I shook my head. "I never intended to. I'll. . . I'll think of something. It will work out."

Penny raised a brow. "Oh? Shadow, we can't drag a pregnant flareon around with us. She needs somewhere safe to stay put until her kits are born."

I nodded blankly. "Then. . . we'll stop at her old home. We can leave her there until we finish our business with the Dark Gang, and then we can come back."

"And then?"

"And then I'll help Liekkau raise our children. But. . ." I smiled at her. "I want you to be there with me."

Penny sighed. "Shadow, I don't know. This has thrown everything for a loop. . . those kits deserve a father, and Liekkau deserves a mate to help her raise them."

"Let's take this one step at a time. We'll see how things play out. . . maybe we can make it work?" I waited a moment for her to respond. She just sighed again and leaned against me, head rested on my shoulder.

"I would hate you so much right now if I didn't love you, Shadow." She gave me a kiss on the cheek. "Alright. We'll wait it out. But you'll have to face this someday. You have to take responsibility for your actions."

I nodded. "But for now. . . we get Liekkau home, and we find the Wave Rider. No problem, right?"

"Look at you," Penny chuckled. "Ever enthusiastic. No one would think that you just learned you're going to be a father."

I grinned at her. "Hey, it could be fun. I love children." We shared a kiss and gazed at each other for a long moment.

"We need to stop doing this," I smirked.

"Doing what?"

"Stalking off like this. Being alone together, Leo and Liekkau might get suspicious."

Penny laughed. "You know Liekkau doesn't have a suspicious bone in her body. That linoone, on the other hand. . ."

I smirked, thinking back to how Leo reacted to Liekkau's news. There was no way he would taunt Penny like that on accident. "I think he might suspect something already."

"So do you want to head back?"

I dreaded what I would have to do when we returned, suspicions or not. I wasn't looking forward to speaking with Liekkau about all this. "Not particularly. Do you think we should?"

Penny sighed, glanced down at the pool in front of us. "Why? We've got a bath here." She gave me a wink. "And some privacy to boot. I don't think they'll come looking for us."

I smirked, kissed her on the cheek. "I like the way you think, love."


	18. Welcoming Party

**Author's Note: Once again, I find myself apologizing for my unforgivable lack of updating. I've slowly, **_**slowly**_** been losing interest in these two stories (as is likely to happen), making it more difficult for me to buckle down. But, never fear! I shan't be letting you down, my dear readers, as I promise I will see this story to the end. It just might take a bit longer than I had hoped.**

**But enough of that. In exchange for making you wait, this time I've prepared an extra-long chapter for you guys! Enjoy!**

_A lover lost, a hero sought,_

_A conflict that the world forgot._

_What hell hath these villains wrought_

_Upon this peaceful land?_

When I awoke, Penny was not by my side.

I was disoriented for a moment, and sat up to get my bearings. I was at the edge of a large, natural pool of warm water. Around me was a rocky outcropping overlooking a steep cliff face. Behind me, a large black crevasse traveled up the stony face of the mountain. A cool breeze sent a shiver down my spine. After a moment, everything started coming back to me.

_That's right. We're climbing the mountain in search of the Wave Rider_, I remembered slowly, my thoughts coming together bit by bit. Thinking felt like moving through molasses. _And the higher we climb, the colder it's going to get. _

In front of me, sitting at the lip of the overhang, Penny sat looking out over the scene laid before us. A carefully stepped around the hot spring and took a seat near Penny, perching precariously close to the edge.

"Good morning, Penny," I yawned, giving her a kiss on the cheek. She didn't move, didn't even acknowledge that I greeted her. ". . . Penny?"

"Hm?" After a moment, she finally turned her head. "Oh. Good morning, Shadow." She offered a faint smile before turning her gaze back to the view overlooking the valley.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, genuinely worried. She was definitely not an early bird, but it was still not like her to be so distant and out of it.

But Penny slowly shook her head. "No, not yet." She turned around to face me and watched me for a long time with unblinking eyes. "Have you ever felt like you know something bad is going to happen, Shadow?"

I cocked my head. "Like what?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. . . it's just a feeling."

"Well. . ." I shrugged. "It's not like it would be the first time we've been in a dangerous situation, Penny. There was the Ursaring, and the Collector, and the Beyond tower, and-"

"I know, I know," Penny sighed. "But it's different this time. I feel like something _terrible_ is going to happen, Shadow. And it's going to happen to you."

I frowned. "Penny, I don't think it's anything to worry about. You probably had a bad dream, and the feeling hasn't worn off yet."

Again, Penny shook her head. "It's different than that, Shadow. I can't shake this feeling." She looked right at me again, and her look showed me she was dead serious. "Promise me you'll be careful, Shadow."

I chuckled. "Penny, you know me-"

"No," she insisted. "Promise me, Shadow. Right now, promise me you'll be absolutely careful. Promise me you won't do anything stupid that will get you killed."

I nodded. "Of course, Penny. I'll be careful."

Penny still seemed unsure. She turned back toward the valley. "I wish you knew how I felt, Shadow. You don't know how terrible this feeling is." She sniffed and looked close to tearing up. "I'm scared, Shadow. I don't want to lose you. . . not now."

I placed one of my paws over hers, offered her a smile. "Penny. . . I promise I will always be here for you. I'm not going anywhere, okay?"

Penny sniffed again, but nodded. "Okay. But I'm going to hold you to that, you big, sappy dope."

I grinned and kissed her cheek. "Penny, you know I would go to the ends of the earth for you."

She smirked. "That's what scares me." Her aura shone and whipped unsettlingly around her body; no matter what she said, I could tell she was still worried. I leaned close and nuzzled her face gently.

"C'mon, we can both be worrywarts later. Leo and Liekkau are probably waiting for us."

We embraced briefly before backtracking and squeezing through the crevasse, emerging on the other side at the bowl-shaped depression in the mountain. A few pokemon ambled about lazily around the pools of clear water. The lush greenery and low trees shimmered with dew in the light of the new day. I spotted Leo curled up on a rock, asleep.

"Where's Liekkau?" Penny wondered aloud, stepping over a small bellsprout that had rooted itself to the stony earth. She nudged the sleeping linoone with her nose. "Hey, asshole. Did you lose the girl?"

Leo lifted his head sleepily and yawned, blinked several times as his eyes focused on Penny. He grunted. "You know, I was having the most wonderful dream about a beautiful maiden, and now here I wake up with _you_ in my face."

Penny rolled her eyes sarcastically. "You cut me deep, linoone."

Leo grunted again, resting his head on his forearms. "Think how I must feel. It was such a lovely dream, too. . ."

"Hey!" Penny shouted brusquely, swatting the linoone on the head. "Did you see where Liekkau went?"

Leo shook his head without opening his eyes. "No. Why, has she gone somewhere?"

Penny growled. "That would certainly explain why we're looking for her wouldn't it?" When she did not get a response from the linoone, she cried in frustration. "Listen, you, if anything's happened to her-"

"Good morning!" The cheerful exclamation drew our gazes up the mountain trail: Liekkau was perched on a ledge high above us, a large grin drawn across her face. She breathed heavily, as though she had just run a long distance. "Shadow, I checked ahead! There's something really great up ahead!"

Penny sighed with relief, but I frowned. "You went on ahead? In your. . . condition?"

Liekkau waved a paw at me. "It was nothing, really. I used to live in these mountains, remember?" With a quick shake of her rear, she leapt from her perch down to a spot on the lip of the bowl. "C'mon! If we go now, we can get there before noon."

"That includes you, lazybones," Penny said, swatting Leo from his rock. Leo yelped as he tumbled down, landing headfirst in the pool of water below him. He emerged a moment later, dripping wet and spitting out a mouthful or water.

"This day just keeps getting better and better," he grumbled, reluctantly trudging toward the trail. "Shall we get a move on, then? Let's get this over with already."

()()()()()()()()()()

Much like the previous day, the mountain trail wound slowly through the hills, leading us gradually higher and higher. As we ascended, the air got crisper and chillier, thinner and harder to breathe. After no more than an hour I began to feel lightheaded and weary, but Liekkau forged ahead like the change in altitude was nothing to her. She had, of course, grown up this high in the mountains so she was no doubt used to it, but I still couldn't help but worry about the kits she carried. Could overexertion be harmful to them? What about the thin mountain air?

Liekkau would occasionally look back at me with a cheerful grin, but since she was navigating she did not feel the need to hang back and walk beside me. I was okay with that, of course, because it meant I could trail behind her and Leo and walk alongside Penny. We linked tails, imitating how humans would walk hand-in-hand, but we walked in silence so as to not draw attention to ourselves.

My thoughts were racing at a mile per minute, though. Walking next to Penny, tails intertwined, it just felt so. . . _right_. I knew she was the one for me, and I for her, but it didn't change that Liekkau would someday soon bear my children. I refused to abandon my children, but I still found myself unwilling to give up my love for them.

I sighed. I wasn't even sure if I would make a good father. I certainly didn't feel ready to be raising children already. And how could I hope to sire healthy kits with someone I didn't love?

My gaze fell onto Leo, walking ahead of us. He was a father, wasn't he? For as grumpy as he was, he was certainly the oldest and most knowledgeable of the group. Perhaps he would have some useful information, or at least some worldly advice.

"Say, Penny?" I asked, looking at her. "Why don't you go on ahead and make sure Liekkau's not having troubles. I'll bring up the back."

Penny eyed me curiously for a moment before nodding and quickening her pace. I watched her pass Leo before I did the same, falling into step alongside the linoone momentarily.

"Uh, Leo?" I asked once the girls were out of earshot. "Could I ask you something?"

Leo did not stop, but slowed down enough so that he was in stride with me. "Go for it."

I struggled to find the words to begin. "Leo. . . you're a father, right?"

"Last I checked."

"Well. . ." I couldn't think of how to put it. "How do I prepare for this?"

Leo raised a brow. "'This'?"

"All of this," I said. "Being a father."

"It's not something you _can_ prepare for," Leo admitted. "It's something you learn along the way."

I frowned. I was hoping for a straighter, less parent-like answer. "But. . . what if I mess up?"

Leo barked with laughter. "Shadow, you're _going_ to mess up. All parents do. It's part of that learning." He shrugged. "Hell, I bet your parents made some mistakes."

His words struck a nerve. I scoffed. "Yeah, I'm one of them." Leo gave me an odd look and I shook my head. "My mother abandoned my sister and I after we were born."

"I'm sure she had a good reason," Leo insisted.

"What possible reason could there be?" I demanded. I'd had this exact same argument a million times before, and it never changed. "What reason could you have to abandon your children to go off with some near-stranger? How irresponsible do you have to be?"

"May I remind you that is exactly what _I_ did with you lot?" Leo growled. "I'd be a bit more thankful if I were you."

"Oh," I mumbled. I had completely forgotten that Leo left his mate and children behind to join us. "I-I'm sorry, Leo-"

"Damn right you are. Ungrateful child." I couldn't think of anything to say to that. Leo was right. . . I hadn't really appreciated the sacrifices everyone made to come with me, Leo especially. It really made me think about how much I was asking of everyone, coming along with me like this. This wasn't their responsibility, it was mine, and it wasn't my place to ask them to risk their lives for my sake.

"You didn't have to come with us," I said slowly. "You could've just stayed behind with your mate. You could just turn around now and go back to her."

After a moment, Leo sighed. "Nah, I couldn't. After I met you and Penny, I just felt _compelled_ to come with you. Like I knew you two were doing something important and I was supposed to be there with you."

Hearing it again weighed something heavy in the pit of my stomach. Ralts had said something to that effect. . . that my aura could influence people's actions. To think I may have dragged Leo away from his mate, away from his family, against his will. I was hit by a wave of guilt. Leo noticed my look and misinterpreted, nudging my leg gently.

"You need to stop feeling sorry for yourself, and stop blaming your mother about it. If you're going to be a parent, I suggest you first start acting like an adult."

We walked on in silence. Up ahead Penny and Liekkau walked beside each other, talking about something. They were speaking loud enough for me to hear their words, but their conversation was in Liekkau's strange language. They both laughed and looked over their shoulders at us. Penny gave me a smile and I felt myself blush.

"She means a lot to you, doesn't she?" Leo said suddenly, chuckling. I blanched, a creeping feeling of terror lancing through my body. I gave him a look, but he persisted. "Penny? You two are closer than the heads on a doduo."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said quickly, hoping that Leo hadn't indeed put two and two together and figured out the identity of our relationship. Leo was clever, and it would be better off if he didn't know in case he ever decided to use it against us.

The linoone grunted. "Don't take me for a fool, kid. I've seen the way you look at her." He gave me a knowing look. "In case you hadn't noticed, it's the same way Liekkau looks at _you_."

". . . It's not that I don't like Liekkau," I mumbled after a moment of walking in silence, knowing it was pointless to deny my feelings for Penny.

"Didn't say that you didn't," Leo said. "But you don't share her. . . affections."

"I don't," I admitted with a sigh. "She's an amazing girl, but she was never the one I loved."

Leo chuckled. "You an' Penny were never too subtle about it, either. The flareon must be deliriously in love to be so oblivious."

I frowned. I didn't think that Penny and I _publically_ displayed our affection towards each other, especially not before the other night. "What do you mean? It was just a couple days ago that Penny and I became. . . you know."

Leo looked genuinely surprised. "Really? Huh. Ever since we escaped that Collector guy she's been eyeing you."

"R-really?" My heart skipped a beat. Penny had had feelings for me this whole time? I never even suspected! Leo chuckled, shaking his head.

"You're all oblivious, then." He said, grinning to himself. "I swear I'm the only sane one."

After a moment of walking along in silence, left to my own thoughts, I groaned. "I feel terrible now. I never wanted this to happen to Liekkau."

"Shouldn't have knocked her up."

"Some humans forced us," I growled defensively. Leo shrugged his shoulders dismissively, but the meaning was clear: whatever my excuse, his point was still valid. I had to own up to my actions. I sighed, frustrated. "I don't know what to do."

"I was in a situation like this," Leo said suddenly, quietly. "When I was younger."

"What do you mean?"

"Juggling two girls?" Leo asked. "Love one, knocked up the other? Yeah, I've been in the exact same position."

"You have?" I hoped I didn't sound nearly as shocked as I was.

Leo nodded. "Yup. I was head-over-heels for my childhood sweetheart. Totally in love." Leo looked distant, like his memory was far off and he had trouble focusing on it. "Made a mistake one night with a different girl, not too proud of that. Next thing I know they're making me pick between the two of 'em."

I shivered. The thought of Penny and Liekkau double-teaming me, forcing me to choose between them made me cringe. "How do you even make a choice like that?" I asked in disbelief, almost awed that he managed to come from that sort of confrontation alive.

Leo nodded sagely. "It wasn't easy, that's for sure."

I groaned. Not easy? Try impossible! I couldn't choose between them. . . and though I proposed the idea to Penny I couldn't realistically expect them both to stay. I knew it was a choice I would have to make eventually, but if I could put it off as long as possible. . .

"Just do what your heart tells you," Leo suggested. "Do what feels right to you."

This advice, however well-intentioned, was unfortunately unhelpful. What my heart told me and what felt right were not the same: my heart longed for Penny, but I knew the right thing would be to support Liekkau and our kits.

"I won't abandon my children, but would it be right to choose Liekkau even though I don't love her?" I groaned. "How did you decide?"

Leo shook his head. "Sorry, kid. I can't help you."

I frowned. "But. . . you just said you were in the same position as me."

"I was," Leo stated in a frustratingly matter-of-fact way. "And I made my choice."

"Then why won't you-"

"Because I chose the girl I got pregnant." He said tersely, giving me a sideways glare. "I made the right choice, regardless of what I wanted. . . and I doubt you have the guts to do the same." Having made his point, the linoone picked up his pace to catch up with the girls, leaving me standing, dumbfounded, and with the grim suspicion that I was no better off now than I was before speaking with him.

()()()()()()()()()()

Thousands of years ago, high up in the mountains, a schism between two rocky peaks formed a large valley that cut right through the range, forming a natural pass leading right to the base of the greatest and tallest mountain in the range: Mount Infernus, rumored to be a dormant volcano, awaiting the day it may erupt and spill its magma out onto the inferior mortal world below it.

The mountain trail led straight up to the entrance of the valley, where there stood a plain wooden sign, painted with some words I did not understand.

"What does it mean?" I wondered aloud.

"_Neljä_," Liekkau murmured. She grinned at me excitedly. "The Astari village!"

Straining my eyes, I could see further into the pass. On either side, lining the walls of the valley, were clusters of stout wooden huts built up on some sort of metal stilts. A network of wooden bridges criscrossed the sky, connecting the opposite ends of the valley together.

Before I could say another word, Liekkau let out a whoop and immediately dashed into the pass. Leo groaned and followed after her, but Penny stayed behind and walked along with me.

"She's pretty excited," I observed, chuckling. Liekkau was moving much faster than I would've expected from an expectant mother, so fast that Leo was having a difficult time keeping up.

"Of course she is," Penny said. "This village is her home."

I blinked. "Wait. . . _this_ village is her home? I know she said she grew up here, but I didn't think we were actually this close to it."

Penny nodded idly, looking around the valley. A lazy river ran right down the middle, giving the air a peaceful ambience. "Mhm. The Astari people are pretty scarce now. . . not too many villages like this one left."

"How do you know so much about them?" I asked suddenly, raising a brow at Penny. I'd never questioned it before, but now it seemed a bit strange to me that she would know the language and history of such a small community of mountainfolk.

"You know how I said my owner was a scientist?" Penny asked. I nodded. She glanced around. It almost seemed as though she was trying to recognize this place. "They did some studies about the Astari. My owner was one of the ones who came here. Brought me with him."

"Ahh. . ."

"It was great for a while. I learned about the people and their language. . . I met Heath here." Penny suddenly seemed distant. A glimmer of her aura showed me that she was recalling all her old memories: interacting with the whitecoats, of a younger Penny playing with a group of children, of a certain familiar Mightyena. "But everything changed so suddenly. They had us packed up and moved out in a day. My owner knew something was wrong. . ."

"What happened?" I asked quietly. Penny's eyes were narrowed and her voice lowered. Her aura whipped violently around her. "Penny. . .?"

She looked at me, a thinly concealed rage shimmering in her eyes. "I told you how the Astari are scarce now?" I nodded. "Yeah. . . a new human took over the scientists. Ordered them back, sent in new people to run _tests_. Soon after, all the Astar disappear and the village was completely gone. Like it had never even existed. . ." Penny sighed. "Little question as to who's responsible."

"Penny, if this is going to be too difficult, we don't have to-"

"Ugh!" Penny cried, wrinkling her nose. Her aura seemed to have calmed down, returning once again as a faint glow around her body. "What is that _stench_?"

As soon as she mentioned it, the smell hit me like a wave. Entering _Neljä _was a sensory overload. Each grouping of homes seemed situated around a particular task, each one adding to the ambiance. One cluster of huts surrounded a large bonfire, over which a large side of meat was cooking. Large, wooden looms lined another cluster of huts, giving of the scent of fabric and dye that smelled of fresh fruit. Outside another cluster sat two large vats made for tanning leather, giving off a pungent, sour odor. All the while, villagers went about their daily lives, chattering in their strange tongue, kids playing loudly on the road.

I grinned, moving aside to allow two men carrying a large wooden book to pass by. "This is incredible! I've never seen anything like this!"

Penny nodded, sniffing. She looked like she was on the verge of tears, but happy ones. "Yeah. . . it brings back a lot of memories." She sniffed again and quickly wiped her eyes with the back of her paw. "Ugh. . . this smell must be making my eyes water."

I smiled knowingly and nudged her side. I lowered my voice, speaking softly into her ear. "Do you miss it at all, Penny?"

Penny nodded again, smiling, looking like she was doing her best to not cry. "Only every day, Shadow. I'd love to come back here again. . ." She looked at me, nudging me back playfully. "After we're done with our mission, of course. We have to go find this 'Wave Rider' first."

I walked closer to her, nuzzling her gently. "Then after we go find him, maybe we can settle down here, hm? It'd be the perfect way to solve our dilema with Liekkau. . ."

Penny's face instantly lit up. "You really mean it?"

I laughed, still smiling all the while. "Of course! Whatever makes you happy will make me happy." I craned my neck, trying to find Liekkau amidst the throng of people. "C'mon, let's go find the others so we can get this mission over with!"

We wandered through the crowd, calling out Liekkau and Leo's names, but there was no sign of them anywhere. With this many people and pokemon all around us, finding them would be next to impossible.

"Where did Liekkau say that her owners lived?" I ask Penny, speaking loudly over the din of the village. "Maybe she went there."

Penny bit her lip in thought. "She said. . . I think she said they lived in a hut at the far end of the village." I nodded and followed her, going through the busy heart of the village. The noise here was nearly deafening, and the smells overpowered everyhting else. It was strange to be in such an exotic and lively, yet such a small place after living in big, noisy cities all my life. The noise here was different. It wasn't just loud, polluting the air. The noise here had life and purpose and felt. . . well, warmer. I could see why Penny had fallen in love with such a place.

We continued weaving our way through the throngs of villagers and their pokemon, the crowd eventually diminishing as we neared the opposite end of the village. The houses back here were still constructed on stilts or built high up on the face of the valley wall, but they appeared to be more run down or outright abandoned.

"There they are!" Penny said, taking off at a run towards one of the older-looking houses. In front of the hut Leo lay on the ground, slumped on his side, motionless, while Liekkau lay a few feet from him, trying weakly to stand.

"Leo! Liekkau!" I ran up to the flareon and began to gently help her up. Liekkau's eyes went wide and she twisted away from me.

"Shadow, no! Look out!" I barely had time to register Liekkau's words when a crushing force hit me from behind, tackling me and pinning me to the ground. From the corner of my eye I could vaguely make out a dark, shaggy doglike figure. A menacing canid face glared back at me, bloodred eyes glinting with malice.

"Long time, kid. We've got a little welcoming party for ya," the mightyena growled, pressing down harder on my neck. With a growl, I struggled beneath his weight, but he was far larger and held me down with ease. The air took on a sudden chill, sending a shiver down my spine while a cold, hollow cackle echoed through the air.

_-Hello, my dear!-_ A familiar purple face filled my vision, staring back at me with large red gems in place of eyes. Sableye. She stroked gently under my chin with a clawed hand. _-I knew I hadn't seen the last of you-_ she hissed.

I snarled at her, resulting only in the mightyena digging his claws into my neck threateningly. "You should have died in Metro."

The sableye chuckled. _-I can say the same of you- _She disappeared from my view, and soon I heard Liekkau whimpering somewhere behind me. _-And look at _you_, darling! You're positively glowing!_-

"Leave her alone!" Penny shouted. Though I could not see her, from the sound of her voice I could tell she was being held back as well.

The sableye laughed aloud, a sound like nails on a chalkboard. -_You're done a good job on her, Shadow! Impregnating her saves us a lot of trouble_-She walked back into my limited view, tapping me on the forehead. _-So much so, in fact, that we haven't a need for you anymore-_

The great weight was lifted off of me, and I greedily gasped for air. I got to my feet as quickly as I could manage, turning and growling at the sableye. Beside her, both Penny and Liekkau were being held by a small, black sneasel like the ones we saw outside Metro, sharp claws held dangerously up to their throats. "Let them go," I growled. I took a deep breath and concentrated, taking hold of my aura. I felt the familiar warm buzz in my head as I built up my inert powers. "I swear, I will take you all down right now if you don't."

The sableye grinned, not with her mouth, but with her eyes, and chuckled. _-We're taking the pregnant one because those children belong to us.- _I began to protest, but I was silenced when the two sneasels pressed their claws harder against the girl's throats. Sableye continued, gesturing to Penny. _-And we're taking _this_ one because, while we no longer need you, my master still considers you a minor threat. So long as we have her in our custody, we don't think you'll be stupid enough to attack your love, hmm?-_

"Sh-shadow!" Liekkau cried out weakly. Penny struggled in vain against the sneasel's grip. The mightyena chuckled, patting her side.

"Won't it be great, _Penumbra_?" he asked coldly, voice raspy and low. "It'll be just like old times."

"I've left the past behind me, _Heath_," Penny spat at him. "You'd do well to do the same, you cheating bastard!"

The mightyena roared and slashed Penny across the face with a paw. "Heath is dead!" he barked, breathing heavily. Penny hung limply in the sneasel's grip, blood dripping down her cheek. "I am Black Fang now. But you. . . you'll never change."

"Penny!" I shouted, taking a weak step toward them. Sableye snapped her fingers and the whole group of them began to fade, ready to be teleported off who-knows-where. "Penny, no. . ." I had no choice. I tried focusing my aura, but I couldn't stop thinking about Penny, and how hard I was going to kick that bastard's ass.

The ghost cackled once more. _-Of course, we'd be more than willing to trade her freedom for yours. Just come peacefully and we will set her free.-_

"I-" There was nothing I could say. Penny was completely defenseless, unconscious in the dark pokemon's clutches. if she were awake she would refuse to make the trade, but. . . I had to do what was best for her. I sighed. "I. . . alright. I'll come with you, j-just. . . please, don't hurt her anymore."

"Shadow, no. . ." Liekkau whimpered weakly. Her eyes were wide and on the verge of tears, begging me to reconsider.

Sableye smirked, her jewel eyes gleaming devilishly. -_It is welcome to hear you have more common sense than your late master-_ I cringed. Ralts would never let me go ahead with the deal, either, but. . . they didn't understand. I finally found somebody I could love unconditionally, and I would give up everything for her! _-Now, if you would just slowly step forward, we can-_

"_Olla poissa , demoni!_" A white blur descended on them like a bullet, tearing through the sableye as easily as if she were a wet paper towel. The ghost gave a cry and fell to the ground, long black streaks running vertically down her body. The creature in white shouted again, charging the sneasel that held Liekkau and batting it aside with ease.

"Why, you little-" Black Fang did not get far, as the white creature quickly snatched him by the throat, turned, and slashed him down the middle with a long, bladelike tail.

Sableye groaned and rose in the air, all signs of the new arrival's attack completely gone, as if they had never existed. She gave a cry and her whole body glowed dark red, her aura becoming distinctly visible as my natural senses kicked in. The clapped her hand together and the creature below froze in midstep, his body coiled with chains of red energy.

"_Vapauttaa we , elävä,_" he growled, a faint shimmer of his own orange aura clashing with the ghost's. Sableye simply shook a finger at him then snapped her fingers. In an instant, the sneasels, Black Fang, and Penny were gone.

"Penny, no!" I cried, taking a step forward. With my aura senses active, I could now see black tendrils of my own life force whipping out around me. I glared at the ghost. "Bring her back, dammit! You promised to let her go!" My aura stormed dangerously around me. threatening to burst. The buzzing in my skull was gaving me a pounding headache, but I used the pain to fuel my rage.

The sableye sighed. _-You can never make these things easy, can you?- _She floated high above us, as if sitting in an unseen chair. _-I did not count on the arrival of your little friend here, so we shall reschedule our little deal-_

"Reschedule?"

Sableye stood up, waving an arm in the air. A large red number appeared, floating above her. _-You will have five days to come seek us out. If you do not coply within this time period, we will kill the girl and come after you ourselves. Sound good?-_

I growled at her. "You monster! I'll kill you!"

The ghost grinned with her mouth for the first time, displaying row upon row of pointed teeth, sharp as razors. _-Good. Glad to know we're on the same page- _With a snap of her fingers, the ghost disappeared.

I shivered with rage, glaring at the spot where, until a moment ago, Penny was being held. "DAMMIT!" I shouted, unleashing the swirling vortex of my aura. It spun all around me like a hurricane, whipping out violent tendrils of raw energy. The vortex tore through the earth, cutting down trees and carving deep gashes within the wall of the valley. Then after a moment, though my rage was hardly subsided, my energy vanished and I collapsed to the ground, my aura dissipating into the air.

"Penny. . ." I sobbed, calling out to the sky weakly. The series of red numbers hung in the air above my head, counting down slowly. "Penny, no. . ."

"Shadow!" Liekkau ran up to me, nudging me with her nose, showering me in affectionate licks. "Oh, _taivaan lahja kehua_, Shadow! Gods be praised you are alright. . ."

I kicked my leg out, pushing her aside, and rolled over onto my stomach and weakly pulled myself to my feet. "Move. . . I have to go now. I have to save her!"

"Shadow!" Leo barked, stepping in front of me. The linoone looked a bit bruised and had a cut on his leg, but otherwise appeared unharmed. "Don't be stupid. We came here to find the Wave Rider, and that's what we're going to do."

I snarled. "Didn't you hear her! We only have five days! We need to go _now_!"

"Get ahold of yourself!" He shouted, slapping me hard across the face. "You're obviously delirious. Listen, if this Wave Rider is as powerful as you say, then who's to say he can't help us find your girl, hm? As it is, you don't even know where to start looking."

"Well, I. . ." I didn't realize it before, but Sableye hadn't specified where they would be taking her. They could have gone anywhere, and I could waste what little precious time we had trying to look for her! ". . . you're right."

Leo nodded, satisfied. "Good. Now, if we use Liekkau as a guide, we can probably find this damn Wave Rider in a day or so. Right, Liekkau?"

The flareon shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry. . . even if I did know who we are looking for, I would not know where to look for him." She scooted up against me, nuzzling me softly. "Shadow, you had me so worried! Don't you ever scare me like that again!"

The linoone sighed, scratching his head. "Okay, well. . . maybe one of the locals will know what we're looking for. We can find out there, then-" He cut off suddenly, eyes fixed on something over my shoulder. "Look out behind you, Shadow." The fur on Leo's hackles was sticking straight up and his teeth were bared. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the white blur up closer. It was a slender creature, completely covered with white fur excluding a black, catlike face, along with a scythe-like tail and a curved sickle-shaped object jutting from the side of its head. "He's another dark pokemon. I don't care what he did, you can't trust him."

I glared at the dark pokemon in question, growling through my tears. He's the reason they took Penny away! If he hadn't interfered. . . "What do you want? Haven't you done enough!"

"Liekkau?" The pokemon's gaze completely passed me over me, focusing in on the flareon. He squinted at her, like she was an illusory object narrowly evading his vision. "_On se oikeastaan te, jäljessä aivan nyt kuluva aika_?"

Liekkau huddled closer to me, watching the white pokemon with wonder. "N-no, I don't think. . ." She hesitated a moment, then turned back. "Wait, I. . . _ajatella osata te. . ._"

I glanced at her. "Liekkau. . . do you know him?" The pokemon looked unlike any I had ever seen. And the way he had appeared out of nowhere right in the nick of time was. . . uncanny, to say the least. He had showed off incredible battle prowess against the dark pokemon, and when the sableye had him in her aura chains he had shown some degree of control over his own aura. "Liekkau. . . is he the Wave Rider?"

The dark pokemon blinked at me curiously. "_Ai ketkä. . . Ratsuikäinen?_" He chuckled, shaking his head. "_Nej, nej. _I. . . am. . . _Varjostaa Vuori_. _Me olevani ystävyys jahka me toivoisin nuori!_"

Liekkau beamed, walking towards the creature. "His name is Vaori," she translated, smiling back at me over her shoulder. "We were childhood friends."

This caught Leo's attention. "Then. . . does he know the mountains? Can he tell us where to find the Wave Rider?"

Liekkau turned back to Vaori, and the two exchanged words in Astarian. She turned back to me, smiling beatifically. "He knows where the Wave Rider is! And he said he'd lead us right to him!"

My spirits lifted. If he could bring us to the Wave Rider, then maybe the Wave Rider could help us locate Penny! I made a promise not to rest until I Penny was safely at my side once again. Screw their deal! As soon as I knew where they were keeping Penny, I'd make them all wish they'd never even crossed me.

I smiled at Liekkau. "Can you tell him we said thanks, Liekkau? He's doing us a huge favor by doing this."

Liekkau exchanged words with him again, and he turned to me specifically, brilliant red eyes focusing in on me. He smiled softly. "_Te aari mieluinen , Laitonaa_."

Liekkau grinned at me. "He says 'you are welcome, Black One'."

"So. . ." Leo said, sidling up and directing his question to Vaori, interrupting before I got the chance to question the name the white pokemon had given to me. "Where is the Wave Rider?" Liekkau relayed his question to the white pokemon, who took a step back and gestured down the length of the valley, to the large mountain that lay dormant at the end. Mount Infernus.

"_Tulivuori. . ._" Liekkau breathed, gazing up at the volcano. "The Great Beast. And the Wave Rider rests at the peak."

I nodded, sizing the mountain up. It would be difficult, but I would not let anything stand in between Penny and I. I would climb a thousand _Tulivuoris_ if it meant I could see her safe one more time. Nothing was going to stop me now; not the Dark Gang, not Black Fang, and definitely not some stupid volcano.

"Alright," I said emphatically, shaking my head to clear out the remaining fog from my aura outburst. "Let's go find that Wave Rider."

Behind me, Leo groaned. "_Great_. I was just wondering if we'd ever get to go mountain climbing again."

**A/N: I cut the chapter a bit shorter than I originally intended, but for some good reasons. I've entered an Original Character Contest over on deviantart, and as that's going to be taking up a good bit of what free time I have, if I didn't finish it up now then you guys wouldn't have seen it for at least another month anyways. On the bright side, though, you can check out my progress over on deviantart (my username over there is still Mintobrandybuck) as I go through this tournament, entitled 'Big Sky Carnival'. It should be a lot of fun :)**

**Oh, and one other cool thing: I've gotten some questions from people, many of them repeats, so I went ahead and made myself a Formspring account (the website is www . formspring . me and, once again, my username is Mintobrandybuck.) So. . . feel free to pop on by and ask me about anything you might wanna know about my stories, or characters, or anything, really. Doesn't matter to me :3**


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